Researchers have the responsibility of making clear the limits of their understanding about technology, including the software that is soon to be deployed in self-driving cars. Just like most people do not want conventional cars with drunken drivers in the vicinity of their beloved ones, I shall give arguments (which complement my previous arguments: here and follow-up here) to eschew self-driving cars as well.

As a safety engineer at Altreonic, specializing in formal verification and hazard & risk analysis, I am currently contributing to the design and implementation of a Software-Controlled Light Electric Vehicle, called Kurt (named after Kurt Goedel). Besides having a driver sit on the Kurt and steer it, the Kurt vehicle can also be sent steering requests over a wireless channel by a remote-control device. Hospitals, factories and cities in Flanders can — and hopefully will — benefit from several Kurt vehicles.