BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We are playing this week with Roxanne Roberts, Adam Burke and Peter Grosz. Here, again, is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
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SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill does his best Britney Spears and sings "Hit Me Baby One More Rhyme." It's our Listener Limerick challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924.
Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Peter, if self-driving cars are going to work - they're being tested now, as you know - the computers that drive them have to have lots of practice before they're allowed to get out in a real car on the roads. So some companies are training their AI driving programs with what?
PETER GROSZ: The old video game "Pole Position."
SAGAL: You're so close.
GROSZ: A different driving game? Oh, "Grand Theft Auto?"
SAGAL: "Grand Theft Auto."
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GROSZ: Oh, no.
SAGAL: For those who don't know it, that's the...
ROXANNE ROBERTS: That's - wait, that's a terrible idea.
SAGAL: Well, hang on.
GROSZ: That's why he brought it up.
ROBERTS: That's a terrible idea.
SAGAL: That's...
GROSZ: We're going to make jokes about it. Let him finish.
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SAGAL: So "Grand Theft Auto," for those who don't know, is the video game series where players pretend to drive cars around these virtual cities, getting points for winning street races and killing people and generally creating mayhem. So, of course, we should make the robots practice driving in a violent, lawless dystopia. Donald Trump is up five points in Ohio.
ROBERTS: Aren't there any, like, nice car driving games? I mean, I'm just asking.
ADAM BURKE: Yes, yes.
GROSZ: Yes, "Mario Kart."
SAGAL: Well, I mean...
GROSZ: But then the cars need to be, like, throwing shells at each other and...
BURKE: Peter, it's called "Grand Day Auto," you just go out - you have an old 1920s Flivver.
SAGAL: You know, I mean, you wouldn't want them to use something like "Oregon Trail." I mean, they get to their destination, but two of the passengers would have died of dysentery.
GROSZ: Oh, that's funny.
ROBERTS: Would you get into a driverless car?
SAGAL: Do you know that driverless cars are, in general, safer than driver-full (ph) cars statistically?
ROBERTS: And...
BURKE: By the way, most cars are driverless before you get into them.
SAGAL: That's true.
BURKE: Unless you have a chauffeur.
SAGAL: Yeah, you make a good point.
GROSZ: They all come - every car comes driverless. You driver it.
BURKE: (Laughter). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.