Google Car Needs to Study Psychology

The New York Times recently had an article discussing the problems that the Google car was facing.  The problems highlighted were not purely technical ones, but what we might better call socio-technical problems.  Specifically, it is hard to design a car that can cope with the idiosyncrasies (and maybe idiocies) of human drivers.  The article recounts an incident when a Google car was not able to get through a 4-way stop sign because the human drivers kept nudging forward and the Google car was too polite.  In another case a Google car was spooked when an oncoming car approached a red light at a speed the Google car judged to be unsafe.  It took evasive action, but the driver of the oncoming car did stop for the light.  This article highlights the idea of socio-technological systems which we have discussed in class.  Maybe there will be some day when only automated cars are on the road, but until that day,  would-be makers of automated cars will have to program in human behavior.