Elon Musk: A self-driving Tesla should always do the right thing, even if a UFO lands in the middle of the road.

“For self-driving, even if the road is painted completely wrong and a UFO lands in the middle of the road, the car still cannot crash and still needs to do the right thing.

The prime directive for the autopilot system is: Don't crash. That really overrides everything. No matter what the lines say or how the road is done, the thing that needs to happen is minimizing the probability of impact while getting you to your destination conveniently and comfortably.

The prime directive, the absolute priority, is to minimize the probability of injury to yourself or to anyone on the road, to pedestrians, or anything like that. It can't be dependent on the road markings being correct.”

Interview with Sandy Munro, February 2, 2021