Self-Driving Uber SUV Kills Woman In Tempe

[Gman]

Oh....and who really buys a Volvo any more? I can’t believe they are in business

Volvo has been working on autonomous vehicle functions for a very long time...yet they have yet to come out with an autonomous vehicle. Coincidence? No way.

[Irving]

Well I called it.

Pretty easy to be right if you never read any of the info posted.

Not saying I disagree, but it's not like she darted across the road like a deer. According to the advertised technology, this should have been avoidable.

[Gman]

The Volvos used by Uber had a native collision avoidance system on the vehicle. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Uber hadn't disabled it.

[TFOGGER]

Every time I hear about self driving cars, I think of this:

[Irving]

Article about the fatal crash in the Tesla Model X. Not directly related, but close enough to not start a new thread.
http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla...ccident-2018-4

[Gman]

...and another Tesla Autopilot winner...
Tesla's Autopilot engaged during Utah crash

SALT LAKE CITY — The driver of a Tesla electric car had the vehicle's semi-autonomous Autopilot mode engaged when she slammed into the back of a Utah fire truck over the weekend, in the latest crash involving a car with self-driving features.

The 28-year-old driver of the car told police in suburban Salt Lake City that the system was switched on and that she had been looking at her phone before the Friday evening crash.

Tesla's Autopilot system uses radar, cameras with 360-degree visibility and sensors to detect nearby cars and objects. It's built so cars can automatically change lanes, steer, park and brake to help avoid collisions.

The auto company markets the system as the "future of driving" but warns drivers to remain alert while using Autopilot and not to rely on it to entirely avoid accidents. Police reiterated that warning Monday.

A Tesla spokesperson did not comment following the disclosure about the use of the feature.

On Twitter, co-founder Elon Musk said it was "super messed up" that the incident was garnering public attention, while thousands of accidents involving traditional automobiles "get almost no coverage."

South Jordan police said the Tesla Model S was going 60 mph (97 kph) when it slammed into the back of a fire truck stopped at a red light. The car appeared not to brake before impact, police said.

The driver, whom police have not named, was taken to a hospital with a broken foot. The driver of the fire truck suffered whiplash and was not taken to a hospital.

"What's actually amazing about this accident is that a Model S hit a fire truck at 60 mph and the driver only broke an ankle," Musk tweeted. "An impact at that speed usually results in severe injury or death."

The National Transportation Safety Board has not opened an investigation into the crash, spokesman Keith Holloway said, though it could decide to do so.

Over the past two months, federal officials have opened investigations into at least two other crashes involving Tesla vehicles.

Last week, the NTSB opened a probe into an incident in which a Model S caught fire after crashing into a wall in Florida.

Two 18-year-olds were trapped in the vehicle and killed in the flames. The agency has said it does not expect the semi-autonomous system to be a focus of that investigation.

The NTSB and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are also looking into the performance of the company's Autopilot system in the March crash of a Tesla Model X on a California highway. The driver in that incident died.

In March, an Arizona pedestrian was killed by a self-driving Uber car, in the first death of its kind. A driver was behind the wheel of the test vehicle in that case but failed to halt in time.

The investigation into the crash in Utah is ongoing, police said.

The driver of the Tesla may face charges for failing to maintain the safety of her vehicle, which would be a traffic infraction, according to police spokesman Sgt. Samuel Winkler.

Nice try at deflection, Mr. Musk. When people disengage from the primary task of driving the car, bad things will usually happen.

[Irving]

I saw this article the other day and had the same thought of, "Holy crap, 60mph into a stopped fire truck and isn't dead or in a coma?"

[O2HeN2]

Nice try at deflection, Mr. Musk. When people disengage from the primary task of driving the car, bad things will usually happen.

Actually atonomous cars have the same PR problem us gunowners have. Any problem gets national attention while the non-problems get zero coverage.

Heck, your local news won't cover a fatal human-operated car crash in the next town much less another state. But a semi-atonomous vehicle anywhere in the country will make headlines.

The rarer the problem, the more it's reported. Just look at airplane crashes; given the reporting you'd think they were constantly dropping out of the sky.

O2

[Irving]

Yep, better not get caught being outraged by the number of people killed by autonomous vehicle that you can count on one hand while at the same time complaining about the relatively low percentage of school shootings.

[Gman]

They have autopilots in airplanes, but pilots are still not allowed to play with their electronic gizmos in the cockpit. I wonder why?
https://www.cnet.com/news/faa-bans-p...es-in-cockpit/

...and what are the chances of some deer running out in front of the plane at 32,000 feet? A truck stopped at a red light...and the car+driver combo couldn't figure that out?

If it only kills the drivers & their passengers, it should be a self-correcting problem.