Drum has some good questions...

Post #422,956 by Another Scott 3/21/18 11:29:35 PM 3/21/18 11:29:35 PM Reply	Drum has some good questions... https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/03/tempe-police-release-video-of-uber-pedestrian-collision/ There are a few things we can tentatively say: - The pedestrian was crossing in shadow and was virtually invisible a second before the crash. It’s unlikely any human driver could have avoided this collision. [ One should never outdrive one's lights. If you can't see, slow down. The car shouldn't have been driving so fast if it couldn't see far enough ahead - just like a human should slow down. ] - But the Uber car also has lidar and radar. Why didn’t those pick up the pedestrian? - Also: one second might be too short a time for a human to react more than minimally, but it’s plenty of time for a computer. Maybe the Uber car couldn’t have avoided the collision completely, but it doesn’t seem to have reacted at all. Why? I'm sure Uber will do it's best to blame the poor woman who was run over, and the woman "backup driver", before blaming their oh so wonderful self-driving car... :-( Cheers, Scott.
Post #422,970 by scoenye 3/22/18 4:07:13 PM 3/22/18 4:07:13 PM Reply	Those, plus... IMHO, the crosswalk issue is a red herring. In this case, it was a human, but there are plenty of other things out there that can enter the roadway without caring much where, or what the speed limit is. Some are sizable enough that a prang would not end well for the occupants of the car either. Based on the images in Drew's post, there is nothing in the shoulder areas that would have hidden the woman from the car's sensors. I'd say Uber has a while to go before letting their junk loose on the public again.
Post #422,973 by drook 3/22/18 4:36:35 PM 3/22/18 4:36:35 PM Reply	Agreed, but ... Most of the comments I'm seeing online say that the typical human driver would have killed her just as dead. But also that the sensors we've been told self-driving cars are using should have easily seen her. So in this specific scenario, the car was no worse than a human driver, but still so far from what we demand and expect from automation that we want them all grounded for the foreseeable future. -- Drew
Post #422,990 by scoenye 3/22/18 10:58:15 PM 3/22/18 10:58:15 PM Reply	Indeed Being no less lethal than a human pretty much defeats the entire purpose. (Interestingly, it also seems no better than a human in sticking to the speed limit...)
Post #423,028 by scoenye 3/24/18 8:33:28 AM 3/24/18 8:33:28 AM Reply	Lidar vendor doesn't understand it either http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43523286 Basically "No else has this problem. It works as well in the dark as it does in daylight. Uber screwed something up." And, of course, "there's really no need to halt testing over this." I guess their shareholders shouldn't suffer because of Uber's blunders. :-/

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