Inadvertent spotlight on self-driving cars today, with a number of interesting takes:

The L.A. Times on the competition to produce the hyper-realistic, 3D, HD maps necessary for self-driving cars (Tracey Lien).

Daimler is planning to live-test self driving trucks on German roads this fall

And Madeleine Elish and Tim Hwang have a fascinating take on what the experience of the airline industry can teach us about liability and self-driving cars — namely, that the human operator continues to get all the blame when things go wrong even as they’re given less and less control over the machine 

And the WaPo on what the future car might look like (Matt McFarland)

Bonus links: A bunch of A.I. researchers and tech luminaries have signed an open letter asking for a ban on autonomous weapons (Rebecca Merrett). (Here’s the full letter, at the Future of Life institute.)

Meanwhile, the Guardian talks to a bunch of actual designers in the field and finds they’re a heck of a lot more worried about artificial stupidity, not artificial intelligence (Andy Meek).