Will driveless cars have horns?

When would they honk? If they honked, would they have a range of honks, the short beep, the medium honk, the loud and prolonged “laying on the horn” honking? Would a self-driving car honk at another self-driving car, or only when humans are present?

Someday on a summer evening, a group of kids will be playing basketball or baseball or soccer on a residential street. There might be only a couple of dozen homes further down the street which dead-ends.

Someone living down the street calls for a ride from a self-driving car service. The car drives toward the home and encounters the kids playing in the street. Of course the car is programmed to stop well before getting close to the kids. And so the car waits. But the kids see that no one is in the car, and they have learned the car won’t run them over, so they just continue their game.

What happens now? There is no one in the car to ask the kids to move, or maybe explain that the driver will just cruise by against the sidewalk away from them to get by. How long does the self-driving car sit there? Does it honk? What if the kids ignore a honk? Does the car call police? Don’t the police have more important things to do? Perhaps the person who called for the car to pick them up is handicapped and cannot easily go out of the house and check out what is happening a block or 2 down the street. The handicapped person simply calls the car company and complains. What then?

How many people does it take to rob the occupants of a self-driving car?
Answer: 3
One to stand in front of the car, one to stand behind the car, one to aim a gun at the occupants and take their wallets. The car will be programmed to never run anyone over. Virtually impossible to imagine a situation where running over someone would be warranted. Won’t happen.

Self-driving cars might be fine if they only have to deal with other self-driving vehicles. Do we suddenly outlaw all human driven vehicles? What about motorcycles? Mopeds? Bicycles? Pedestrians? Off-roading, jeep trails, ATVs? Going to stop people from driving their vehicle on roads to get to and dirt roads?

The problem with self-driving cars is they will need to interact with humans. That will not go smoothly in all cases. And there will be public outcry when it goes badly.