Oi Chums,

So the teams Rigger sends his drones in along with the team for fire support and things get pear shaped. The B&E man is bleeding on the carpet and the Meat Sheild is desparatley trying to get to him to exit the scene. Security unloads on the drones since they are currently the only thing shooting back. The rigger is driving the teams escape vehicle into position and his drones had previously been given orders to provide fire support for the team so are acting autonomously. Would the independant drones get to use the Riggers edge to escape certain destruction when trying to defend against incoming fire?

No. Never.

They are not living, they are not HIM. Only if he was jumped in HE could use edge.

No

The rigger would have to be directly controlling them and responsible for the test taking place.

I would have to say no. If they were actively being rigged, that would be a different story, but when the pilot program's at the helm they're just so much non-sentient junk.

This, I completely agree. Jumping In is already underutilized, I think it can be well justified that Jumping In should be the only mode where Edge can be used.

He doesn't have to jump in via VR to gain the benefits of Edge. He just has to be controlling it himself; ie, it has to be the rigger making the test, not the drone pilot.

"A character can only spend Edge points on her own actions; she cannot spend it on behalf of others (except when engaged in a “teamwork” test, p. 65)."

"When faced with an unexpected or
novel situation, a drone makes a Pilot + Response Test with a threshold
set by the gamemaster to see if its “common sense” prevails."

Personally I don't have a problem if a Player wants to use Edge for the autonomous Drone's Pilot Roll. I really don't see that it's necassarilly precluded. Who is making the rolls for the Pilot + Response test? Player or GM? Do we apply the same principle to Spirits, Sprites and Agents?

Does it pass the rule of cool to have the drone survive through the players Edge?

I'd allow but for a burning of edge HoG for his drones so to speak.

If you wanted, you could house-rule allowing Edge for drone Pilots, Agents, Spirits, whatever; but it would certainly be a house rule. A character can only use Edge on his own actions. Controlling a drone directly, using the character's skills, is the only way to do that.

Personally, yes. Anything on automatic doesn't get the player's edge.