Self-Driving Uber SUV Kills Woman In Tempe

[thedave1164]

So the homeless woman was killed by a nearly self-aware driverless car co-piloted by a self-unaware dickless transgender felon?

Does not sound like a country song, does sound like the plot to Terminator X

I deal with technology all day long, and have helped develop it through out the years, but not a fan of self driving planes, trains and automobiles.

[Singlestack]

Me and my sister-in law were discussing driverless cars this past weekend. I told her I expected there would be some terrible accidents and deaths during the years they were testing it. As long as there wasn't a public backlash preventing deployment, at some point they will get the tech working very reliably and a lot of accidents will be avoided. After that time, you will hear quite a few nanny staters demanding an end to regular cars and pushing for legislation to outlaw them by a particular date - cause thats what nanny staters do. She didn't agree with that assessment, and felt that nanny staters are way overblown (since she is a self-described progressive).

As long as vehicles are free-moving in 2 dimensions and subject to weather conditions, there will always be accidents. The tech may be able to control a vehicle well, within its capabilities. But some situations are highly complex and include many conditions and moving objects outside of a single vehicle's control. Now if you put cars on tracks like the autopia at Disneyland....

[Skip]

The video shows the negligence of the lady walking the bike. It’s dark as shit and you choose to mosey across the street with zero situational awareness? Looks like she paid the ultimate price for those bad decisions. I would challenge any human driver to successfully avoid that accident.

Her lack of situational awareness is no accident, it was nurtured in a society where other humans are accountable for the bad choices of the few and blamed. Because of this, a human driver would have taken note of her on the sidewalk, her movements, and likely taken action because a person with a family, job, house, etc... doesn't want the blame/consequences.

Enough to avoid the accident? I don't know. I can say I have avoided hitting people who have done the same many times who are used to a world where they have nothing to lose and I have everything to lose. Had a bum do exactly this on Quebec by 450 a couple of weeks ago jay walking from the Shell station to the bus stop by Kohl's. Traffic light with crossing was just 20-30 feet away but he jumped out in traffic for whatever reason entered his brain.

There is no concept of shared responsibility with machines. Machines aren't afraid of lawsuits. They offer almost perfect boolean results to real world problems with no shades of gray, subjectivism, no EQ (emotional intelligence) and thus no means to manipulate. Talk to machinists (have you seen the vids!!?!) and they will explain how unforgiving machines can be.

That lady didn't know she would encounter such a machine that night.

[davsel]

There were no signs that the Uber vehicle attempted to slow down. The investigation has to determine if the sensors could have identified her and how soon.

^This

Wonder if the CEO got the call from the techys saying the car should have avoided this collision, or at least attempted to. Therefore, he immediatly suspended all testing.

I believe the pedestrian is ultimatly at fault in this case, but it seems the smart car should have been able to sense and avoid this accident.

Particularly in cases like this, the car should be better than a human behind the wheel - human's are distracted by any number of things going on around them, but the car's sensors are 100% working to avoid a collision.

Not a fan of self driving anything - DIA trains make me nervous.

[Gman]

I have to dispute the quality of the forward looking video. It makes the headlights appear to only cast light for about 40 feet in front of the vehicle. Those would be some really crappy headlights. Even then, she made it from the center line almost all the way across the lane in that short time. I'm willing to bet that the human eye could have detected something in the roadway much sooner and reacted accordingly (unless you have night vision issues).

The vehicle was doing 38 in a 35 mph zone. Not sure if 3 mph would have made much of a difference, but it certainly won't help Uber.

[davsel]

I've read that the vehicle was doing 38 in a 45.

[Gman]

I've read that the vehicle was doing 38 in a 45.

Police In Arizona Release Dashcam Video Of Fatal Crash Involving Self-Driving Car

The vehicle was traveling at 38 mph at the time of the impact on a stretch of road that police say is a 35-mph zone.

NPR wouldn't lie, would they?

[Bitter Clinger]

Self driving cars have been around a long time.

[Duman]

The headlights on the car appear to be dim, but I think part of that is the street lights interacting with the camera.
IIRC, the white lines are approximately 10' long, with the 30' spacing between.*
At 38-mph, the car is travelling about 56-feet per second (call it 60-fps).
With a reaction time, of say 0.5 seconds, that leaves about 30-feet to observe and react, then the stopping distance of the vehicle (another 75' ??) So a total of about 100' ish from detection to full stop.

Looking at the video, the first pixel of her tennis shoe (my eyes) occurs at the point where the video time changes from 0:02 to 0:03. The collision occurs at almost the start of timer 0:04.

However, when you hire a monkey, you're mileage may vary.

[Gman]

-and-/-or-

The car swerves into the open lane on the left by a few feet and the woman survives.