You can jump out of your car and either rationally debate with them the merits of allowing access to the right-of-way, or jump directly to violent threats. The problem with autonomous cars as they are being rationalized to the public is that half the time the car will have no occupants at all. There will be nobody in the car to leap out and shake their fist.
Then either the person in the car behind will jump out and tell the idiot to move or if all the cars waiting are autonomous then they can all collectively out-wait the deranged idiot blocking traffic since they have infinite patience unlike humans.
Make sure to take your GoPro, I want to see the upload of you, on a dark night, getting out of your car, into freezing winter temperatures in a lonely, isolated part of town, to negotiate with a violent drunk or two.
Just turn around? So the cars will be near spherical in design and with 4 wheel steering? Cool.
There are so many unresolved issues around self-driving cars, and the answer always seems to be "just do this", without any real solution to the problem as described. Self-driving vehicles may well be a good thing, but let's not stick our heads in the clouds and assume "it'll be okay".
Edit: ellaboration. Stopping in traffic and calling the cops because of this is going to be a non-starter. If you're the cause of the blockage how are they going to get there? The GP is right, there are many situations where it's not going to well, and I can see lots of pranks by highschoolers that will completely mess with self driving cars.
Heck an accidental release of confetti would be an interesting experiment.
The cops would only be called if the car is blocked for several minutes or the passenger decides to do so. Nobody cares if the car has to brake for a few seconds and then continues driving as usual. We spend far more time at traffic lights anway.
