I’ve wondered if I want all the coming self driving cars to strictly obey the law. Think about the case where they line up across the road or freeway, all driving the speed limit. Yikes! Tesla is giving drivers the option for the car to break the law, it seems:
Tesla’s FSD Beta’s Driving Modes Can Break Laws. Is That Okay? (jalopnik.com)
By allowing it to break the law it then is not compliant with the IEEE and SAE standards.
If the ones on the left aren’t passing, then they might also be breaking the law, in which case they’d need to slow down and move right. Even if they’re not breaking the law by doing that, it would be best if they were programmed to do that for safety reasons anyway.
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In the case you give, it’s likely the vehicle would be programmed to stay out of the leftmost lanes. I think deliberately disobeying the law would lead to significant penalties for the manufacturer.
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May we live in interesting times-just not crazy times.
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Last night my son was driving on this long road with no streetlights and woods on both sides. there was high grass/weeds near the road before the woods starts. the speed limit is 50mph, but he was driving at 40 mph. because he is cautious of the deer in the area. well, a deer ran out of the woods at full speed and ran into the driver’s side of his car. it damaged the driver’s fender, he cannot open the door, and it took out the driver’s side mirror. so, I was wondering, if this happened to a self-driving car and it damaged a sensor or two, would the vehicle keep driving with the damaged sensors? I would hope they would have some software in place that would force it to stop.
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oh, the deer if probably ok because it just got up and ran off. just in case anyone is interested.
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My guess is that the car would probably stop, evaluate the state of the sensors, then decide whether to continue or not. I understand that it can review sensor health much quicker, but it should stop in case there is mechanical damage that its sensors can’t evaluate quickly.
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To late they are already here. 
Wonder if the car does adaptive cruise control like mine. Set it to 75 in a 70 mph limit and keep up with the flow of traffic.
It would request manual driver take over and likely stop in the road if that didn’t happen. But this brings up another interesting question. What if there is complete loss of power while driving? The brakes and steering still work but is the driver alerted to this condition soon enough?
Yeah probably immediately stop in the middle of the road with flashers going and horn honking, placing a call to its master controller. But then again, why would a self-driving car be out on a lonely road all alone at night with no passenger?? A possible runaway? Artificial intelligence and all. If they think they are human, like my dog, who knows what they will do.
Speaking of live deer. One jumped across the hood of my car but didn’t make it. South Dakota Highway Patrol finished the job. It took him two shots but he dropped him/her. He was a pretty good shot but man was that pistol (45 or something) loud. He just looked at me like he dropped law violators all the time. I always wondered if he had to write a report for rounds spent or something. If they were his own I should have reimbursed him.