Tests? what tests? We are too busy fighting over if controller tests are still worth it.
Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
691–700 of 1001 posts
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#692The last time I visited Phoenix, I recall being shocked at far apart traffic lights were in the city. Between the Wal-marts and the giant four-to-six bedroom homes, it might be normal to see a major street have a mile between traffic lights (and presumably, crosswalks). It was very different from, say, driving in New York, San Francisco or Seattle. I'd be curious whether "walking outside of the crosswalk" turns out t…
I hope they aren't expecting people to only appear at intersections:
"The California Vehicle Code says you can actually cross any street as long as you aren't a hazard to vehicles. It is also legal to cross mid-block when you're not between two intersections with signals." [1]
The article points out that LA has a different rule. Uber's going to need to geofence locations and use different rulesets for different cities.
[1] https://www.scpr.org/news/2015/04/14/50992/how-do-you-cross-...
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#693The Washington Post has an updated story with the victim's name: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/03/1... > Police said the vehicle was northbound on Curry Road when a woman, identified as 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, crossing from the west side of street, was struck. She died at a hospital, the department said. No mention of her being a bicyclist. My gut instinct is to accept that the victim w…
The location of the crash (from what I can tell):
https://www.google.com/maps/place/N+Mill+Ave+%26+E+Curry+Rd,...
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#694Former Lyft eng here. From my vantage point, as an industry, we're nowhere near where we should be on the safety side. The tech companies are developing driving tech privately instead of openly. Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system. Even when a human operator has his hands hoverin…
When regular cars first appeared, were they not tested "live" immediately? And yes, there was FUD even back then, and in parts of the world a backslash which resulted in sometimes silly safety rules. The largest real difference seems to be the speed of communication nowadays, the rate at which public opinion can be manufactured and globally spread.
And a countless number of people have been killed.
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#695I never understood the recent push towards self-driving cars, as it already seems perverse that the entire surface pavement has been dedicated primarily to motor vehicles and only secondarily to our actual selves, as pedestrians.
Putting further pressure on what should really be 2 discrete planes of activity (perhaps one in tunnels below ground or in the air, and I don't mean the pedestrians!)
Perhaps now the arrogance of such bad ideas becomes a little bit more clear to the tech set of folks, that in my view were excessively pushing such strange goals upon a public that wasn't clamoring for it.
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#696I'm paranoid when I'm on a bike. Any road with a dedicated bike lane may be classified as bike-friendly, but I can't consider it so if cars are on the same road. IMO, the only bike-friendly routes are where there are no cars. I wish pavements could be made wide enough for bikes everywhere, so that bikers could be on the road only for a limited amount of time while crossing intersections.
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#697Former Lyft eng here. From my vantage point, as an industry, we're nowhere near where we should be on the safety side. The tech companies are developing driving tech privately instead of openly. Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system. Even when a human operator has his hands hoverin…
> Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system. Interesting way of putting it. Kinda echos the "privatize the profits, socialize the losses" sentiment from the financial crisis.
Really it's "socialize the costs" as well, considering that autonomous vehicle development was funded by taxpayers.[1] Like most high tech.
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#698Former Lyft eng here. From my vantage point, as an industry, we're nowhere near where we should be on the safety side. The tech companies are developing driving tech privately instead of openly. Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system. Even when a human operator has his hands hoverin…
> Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system. Interesting way of putting it. Kinda echos the "privatize the profits, socialize the losses" sentiment from the financial crisis.
We already have a system for privatizing negative externalities in traffic accidents (and in 95% of the rest of life). It's called tort law, and it will certainly be used in this case if Uber was at fault.
There are of course situations were externalities fail to be privatized (e.g., traffic congestion), but I don't think auto accidents is one of them.
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#699Former Lyft eng here. From my vantage point, as an industry, we're nowhere near where we should be on the safety side. The tech companies are developing driving tech privately instead of openly. Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system. Even when a human operator has his hands hoverin…
>Why can a private for profit company "test" their systems on the public roads? The public is at serious risk of getting run over by hacked and buggy guidance / decision system.
Because the for profit company has a say in government and lawmaking, the person getting run over doesn't.
Re: Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona woman crossing street
#700Looking further then the devastating tragedy at hand, it might be necessary to get the question of responsibility publicly answered. I dont think I am the only one here who has deliberately chosen not to work in fields where human lifes are at risk.
Despite the likely outcome, that the engineers behind this took every safety percussions, I think its extremely important, to get the message across, that people with an CS background with such use cases are going to be held to the same standard as for example mechanical and electrical engineers.