Well technically the Earth is in space, and anyone who has been hit by a self-driving car was on Earth, so people already have been hit by self-driving cars in space.
It's already happened once. A couple years ago some astronomer spotted a small asteroid with a high albedo (it was very reflective, brighter than normal).
Some Internet folks verified, and with a few more observations they were able to calculate its orbit.
Turns out the orbit matched that of the Tesla shot into space. The high albedo would make sense as the Tesla is still connected to the falcon 9 upper stage, which is painted all white.
I would argue that particular car is not driving.
I would argue that one is driving much better than one in self-driving mode, because it can remain on course.
It would still be hurtling towards you nonetheless. And probably at greater relative speed than usual!
But you see, it will be doing so in a predictable way. Unlike a Tesla that will change its mind at any point.
Well technically the Earth is in space, and anyone who has been hit by a self-driving car was on Earth, so people already have been hit by self-driving cars in space.
Did those early Roadsters have self driving tech? I thought they were more barebones sports cars, not like the current gimmick-dumpsters.
Is that car in some kind of orbit, or did we just send it?
Heliocentric orbit like this:
More info:
That's actually pretty cool. That thing might be forgot about and then found again 10,000 years from now
It's already happened once. A couple years ago some astronomer spotted a small asteroid with a high albedo (it was very reflective, brighter than normal).
Some Internet folks verified, and with a few more observations they were able to calculate its orbit. Turns out the orbit matched that of the Tesla shot into space. The high albedo would make sense as the Tesla is still connected to the falcon 9 upper stage, which is painted all white.
You factor in that it's SpaceX calculations. So an example could be between 10000 years or 10000 seconds.
Cargo space
Wasn't it a roadster? Do those even have AutoDrive?
it did not