Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

However its use as a major source of transportation fuel will be replaced.

This maybe true but it will not be battery vehicles that win the day. They will continue to glitch and kill people.

With the rise of self-driving car technology, it's possible that computer systems on these vehicles could malfunction due to cosmic rays. What if, during an automated trip, imagery from a camera mounted at the front of the car became corrupted and the on-board computer failed to spot a person walking out in front of the vehicle?

However, the research is yet to be published and he says he's not allowed to reveal what the starting level of accuracy was during the experiments.

Such interventions could make self-driving cars of the future safer but they wouldn't eliminate the possibility of a cosmic ray causing other problems. And this raises an interesting conundrum for insurers.

"In a world of fully autonomous vehicles, how can you prove the accident happened because of cosmic rays?" says Rech. "That is very challenging. I mean, it's impossible, by definition." In ambiguous cases, disputes over whether a human or technology manufacturer – or space weather – was at fault might be difficult to resolve

Impossible to prove but can and does happen. Can even be emulated in a lab setting.


https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221011-how-space-weather-causes-computer-errors