Far enough down the road (pun intended), one idea is that all the cars would be communicating with each other in some sort of radio link. That way when one car starts to stop (let's say because of an unanticipated obstruction), all the cars behind it can start to stop before they (or a driver) could even sense the problem. Even with human drivers, such a system could propagate a warning back up the highway for all the other cars to slow down. Such a system also has the potential to ease traffic congestion in high-travel areas as well (assuming most/all of the cars are equipped with the system).
The whole "how an automated car responds to a car-bike-bicycle-pedestrian dilemma" question is pure baiting. How does a human pick in the same situation? The implication is that the human would make a "better" choice, but would they? An equally relevant (probably more relevant really) is how much better than a human is an automated car at avoiding those damned-if-you-do type of situations altogether. Studies have already shown that the assisted-emergency-braking systems are waaay better at stopping a car in an emergency than a human driver is.
Mike
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