Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Arizona Pedestrian (safe, homeless, rated)

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

We are just not getting the complete story.

That's not uncommon, of course, in the early days of any high profile accident. One thing that does surprise and trouble me is the very strong assertion made by Tempe Police Chief Moir...

"It's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway," Moir told the San Francisco Chronicle after viewing the footage.

It's very unusual in any event for police to give such an opinion, and especially so early in an investigation. Typically they will spell out the undisputed details of the incident, and then leave any conclusions to investigative agencies.

[wit-nit]

Originally Posted by craig11152

That is simply not true at all. Human driven cars cause about one pedestrian fatality per 688 million miles. Those numbers come from the NTSB. The sum total of all driver-less miles probably isn't 200 million although those numbers are not well kept. Most of that is in controlled conditions or limited access roads where hitting a pedestrian is nearly impossible. So even if a third of those miles, say 67 million was on public roads with pedestrians "available" then autonomous vehicles are 10 times more likely to kill a pedestrian than a human driven car.

The last part is conjecture on my part because there is no clear data yet on how many driver-less miles in real time traffic has been logged. But it isn't remotely close to 688 million miles which is how often a human driven car kills a pedestrian.

In 2013, there were 4,735 pedestrians killed (Table 1) and an estimated 66,000 injured (Table 2) in
traffic crashes in the United States. A total of 4,653 traffic crashes (Table 4) each had one or more
pedestrian fatalities. On average, a pedestrian was killed every 2 hours and injured every 8 minutes
in traffic crashes.
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api...ication/812124

[DetroitN8V]

Dash cam footage has been released. No human could have possibly done anything to avoid this. This is a tragic accident caused by the pedestrian crossing a dark part of the street outside of a crosswalk. Can we quit blaming the technology now?

https://www.abc15.com/news/region-so...dly-uber-crash

[fluffythewondercat]

Originally Posted by Tiffer E38

Over 10 pedestrians are killed every single day by human driven cars and no threads are started on that. Per million miles traveled, semi autonomous and autonomous cars are so far vastly safer than humans at driving, for all those reasons mentioned.

I might agree with that, if only I could see the AV test records.

What? Those records aren't released? Huh. How about that. We're just supposed to take Tesla's, Waymo's, Uber's, Ford's, Volvo's and Toyota's word for it.

When did we start blindly trusting automotive companies without governmental testing?

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Dash cam footage has been released. No human could have possibly done anything to avoid this. This is a tragic accident caused by the pedestrian crossing a dark part of the street outside of a crosswalk. Can we quit blaming the technology now?

Don't set the bar so low. The promise is that these systems are always attentive and work well in light or darkness. If they're no better than a human then why all the fuss and expense?

LIDAR should have "seen" the woman before she is visible in the video. The question is how much earlier, and should that have been enough time to at least react?

I'll be surprised if the driver is charged with anything, although it does appear he is looking down at something during a lot of the video, and then looks up only a moment before reacting to the impending collision.

[Adamson865]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Can we quit blaming the technology now?

I don't blame the technology, but I still blame Uber for hiring a felon who now has been revealed to have a long string of traffic offenses.

Operator of self-driving Uber had a history of traffic violations* | Daily Mail Online

With such a high-profile project, companies really need to hire the best possible people to project the best possible image. Uber clearly failed in this case - because in case of an accident such as this, the operator's judgment comes into question. An operator with such a poor driving record is a spectacularly poor hire for Uber.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by rah62

I don't blame the technology, but I still blame Uber for hiring a felon who now has been revealed to have a long string of traffic offenses.

Operator of self-driving Uber had a history of traffic violations* | Daily Mail Online

With such a high-profile project, companies really need to hire the best possible people to project the best possible image. Uber clearly failed in this case - because in case of an accident such as this, the operator's judgment comes into question. An operator with such a poor driving record is a spectacularly poor hire for Uber.

Your argument is a red herring. The driver’s criminal record had no bearing on this situation.

[Adamson865]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Your argument is a red herring. The driver’s criminal record had no bearing on this situation.

It absolutely does have bearing because it calls into question the operator's judgment. I can't say it any clearer than that.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Dash cam footage has been released. No human could have possibly done anything to avoid this. This is a tragic accident caused by the pedestrian crossing a dark part of the street outside of a crosswalk. Can we quit blaming the technology now?

https://www.abc15.com/news/region-so...dly-uber-crash

Originally Posted by hikernut

Don't set the bar so low. The promise is that these systems are always attentive and work well in light or darkness. If they're no better than a human then why all the fuss and expense?

LIDAR should have "seen" the woman before she is visible in the video. The question is how much earlier, and should that have been enough time to at least react?

I'll be surprised if the driver is charged with anything, although it does appear he is looking down at something during a lot of the video, and then looks up only a moment before reacting to the impending collision.

Originally Posted by rah62

I don't blame the technology, but I still blame Uber for hiring a felon who now has been revealed to have a long string of traffic offenses.

Operator of self-driving Uber had a history of traffic violations* | Daily Mail Online

With such a high-profile project, companies really need to hire the best possible people to project the best possible image. Uber clearly failed in this case - because in case of an accident such as this, the operator's judgment comes into question. An operator with such a poor driving record is a spectacularly poor hire for Uber.

This video is utterly Damning to the UBER system. It also settles that the NY Times diagram was correct.

Again Utterly Damning.

they simply blew the most obvious predictable problem. I personally find it hard to believe.

I would not let Uber back on the road again until they explain in detail how they fixed this.

the driver is merely another example of why Google went to no steering wheel or peddles. Riding in such a vehicle will simply numb the driver until they are unable to maintain awareness. Fact of life.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by rah62

It absolutely does have bearing because it calls into question the operator's judgment. I can't say it any clearer than that.

How would one having clean criminal record have “judged” this situation better? What you’re saying is, this accident would have been avoidable if the operator never had a criminal record. That’s asinine. Did you watch the video?