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That's rather odd. Never heard of a bus having right of way over normal traffic, not a lot of busses in my area though. In this case it did have the right of way as it occupied the lane the Google car was trying to merge into, doesn't really matter that it was a bus, any vehicle in its position would have had the right of way.
In NJ buses have decals on the back, "Yield to bus". It's more for the merging back onto the street after dropping or picking up passengers at the curb.
From reading the article it seems the google car's lane was blocked so the google car assumed the bus would just let him cut him off. The bus driver probably couldn't see that the car's lane was blocked. I wonder if the car put it's turn signal on that it was going to move over to the left?
Also the bus probably couldn't have stopped in time, I've driven tractor-trailers on NYC streets and anticipate taxi drivers cutting you off all the time, or just cutting in front of you to pick up a passenger. Fortunately I haven't hit any of them yet.
If you're right, and 10 years from now the software is "bomb proof", then you'll be able to say that the problem is no longer technological. But right now, that's exactly what it is - the machine is simply not "smart" enough to drive a car, because it is not able to make a decision about any circumstance that it was not programmed to expect.
There's nothing political about it - they simply don't work. And until they make major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, technology will continue to be the roadblock to making automated automobiles a reality.
Here I found a Streetview image of the location, that might help people not familiar with the area to understand the location. The articulated bus in this image, should be in the same approximate location, as the one the Google car hit. The silver car should be in the same approximate location as the Google car was in, when it decided to turn into the side of the bus. Sorry about the spelling errors in the annotations.
Some of us still enjoy driving and would never use a self driving car, especially when it's a fun car to dribe like my Challenger. People like to say that younger folks such as millenials are not into driving but go to a classic car show, or the local high school or college parking lot and see how full they still are.
Add to that, those who can’t afford or don’t want to spend the six digit figure price for a self-driving car. Self-driving cars are probably the biggest pipe dream of our times.
In NJ buses have decals on the back, "Yield to bus". It's more for the merging back onto the street after dropping or picking up passengers at the curb.
From reading the article it seems the google car's lane was blocked so the google car assumed the bus would just let him cut him off. The bus driver probably couldn't see that the car's lane was blocked. I wonder if the car put it's turn signal on that it was going to move over to the left?
Also the bus probably couldn't have stopped in time, I've driven tractor-trailers on NYC streets and anticipate taxi drivers cutting you off all the time, or just cutting in front of you to pick up a passenger. Fortunately I haven't hit any of them yet.
The VTA busses in Mountain View used to have flashing yield signs. But I believe they took them off about 10 years ago after a brief test. So I doubt this bus had a yield sign on it. Even if it did, it would not have been relevant to this crash.
I’m sure the Google car did have it’s turn signal on, and the bus driver probably saw it, and didn’t care. The bus driver has a schedule to keep. He would not be able to do that, if he stopped for every idiot who signaled to enter traffic.
Haven't they been doing this for a while? This is the first accident?
Supposedly it is the first accident that the Google car was at fault for. They have had dozens of accidents, where either the driver of the Google car, or other motorists were found to be at fault.
The real question is, how many times has stuff like this happened before, when the driver took over control and prevented the car from crashing?
I do believe driverless cars will become mainstream, but in more like 25-30 years not 10. The biggest problem I see is the mixture of automated and human controlled. If all cars were automated the system would be much easier to implement. Vehicles would be able to communicate with each other instantaneously. In this case, the car could have sent a request to merge in front of the bus and the bus could have returned a response in a millisecond that it was ok to do so or that the bus could not comply. The car would have then either merged or stopped.
This is why you extensively alpha test software. Google will fix the bug and it won't happen again. I'm rolling my eyes at the "this is why automated cars will never be possible" crowd. It's coming.
Oh, it will happen. I just think it needs more time to mature. I for one am excited to think of the possibility of catching a few extra Zzzz's on the way to work in one.
I just think there are still more things to work out. For example, driving in snow. It requires some experience and technique and not sure how that will be implemented in automated cars.
. Vehicles would be able to communicate with each other instantaneously. In this case, the car could have sent a request to merge in front of the bus and the bus could have returned a response in a millisecond that it was ok to do so or that the bus could not comply. The car would have then either merged or stopped.
Which means manually driven cars will be required to have similar software as well to be on the roads.
I wonder if that means taking your classic corvette out for a Sunday coffee will soon be in jeopardy without necessary upgrades?
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