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Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

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Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#101

Post by mschuster91 »

gnicholas wrote: post #49

> The driver, Rafael Vasquez, 44, served time in prison for armed robbery and other charges in the early 2000s, according to Arizona prison and Maricopa County Superior Court records. Uber declined to comment on Vasquez’s criminal record. I didn't realize that people with criminal records like this could become Uber drivers. That is, these types of crimes are relevant to working as an Uber driver—more than things lik…

> I didn't realize that people with criminal records like this could become Uber drivers.

In a civilized society people should be able to get jobs when they get out of prison. It's called "time served" for a reason. Everything other is just paving the path to recidivism - when people can't make a living because no one will hire ex-cons, they don't have any other way of literally staying alive than living as hobos or breaking the law.

The attitude in your comment is imho perfectly representing why the US has such problems with career criminals.

The only class of people where even after time served there should be safeguards are when there's a psychological reason that actually makes people dangerous, like pedophilia.

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#102

Post by hndamien »

hndamien wrote: post #84
dragonwriter wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> did the car start breaking as soon as possible? “braking”; “breaking” is something else, and not a desirable response.

"breaking" implies it was "working" in the first place.

Wow, tough crowd. Is this on? `tap`, `tap`, `tap`

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#104

Post by danso »

Taniwha wrote: post #71
danso wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, to me, this is the most relevant part of the posted article: > “It’s possible that Uber’s automated driving system did not detect the pedestrian, did not classify her as a pedestrian, or did not predict her departure from the median,” Smith said in an email. “I don’t know whether these steps occurred too late to prevent or lessen the collision or whether they never occurred at all, but the lack of braking or swe…

it could be that they never saw someone pushing a bike across a road in tests before, maybe it confused that with someone riding on the road at a different angle

But why is accurate classification needed, when the overriding decision is about how the car should react now that an unidentified, moving object is moving directly into the car's path? Even if someone were riding at an angle, it's still in a direction that may intersect with the car's path.

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#106

Post by mirimir »

Someone wrote: post #27
branchan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the woman suddenly walked in front of the car at the last minute, I don't see how the situation could have been avoided, no matter how fast a computer is able to process the information from the sensors. There was also a driver behind the wheel, so it would suggest that humans are just as clueless.

”If the woman suddenly walked in front of the car at the last minute, I don't see how the situation could have been avoided” Likely, but not necessarily. Depending (hugely!) on what actually happened, it might be that the car should have started slowing down before the woman changed course. As an extreme example, if you’re driving at 50 mph and come up behind a kid cycling at the side of the road with a foot separati…

I have had vehicles blow by me on a bicycle at 50 mph, on fairly narrow county roads.

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#107

Post by sdrothrock »

danso wrote: post #88
mirimir wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, so now she's crossing three lanes. So that's about 9 meters. At 1-3 meters per second for her, and 17 meters/second for the Uber SUV, it should have seen her 3-9 seconds (50-150 meters) before impact. That's a pretty clear fail. I wonder what the Uber's field of view is. At what distance should it have detected stuff about 9 meters off track? But she did likely walk out from landscaping. So perhaps she initial…

> That's a pretty clear fail. And yet the police were so quick to say that camera footage indicates that Uber was likely not at fault. It was so quick that it makes me inclined to think it's pretty obvious. However, after the SF Chronicle published its exclusive interview with the Tempe's chief of police, the Tempe Police PR person had to issue a statement that, "Tempe Police Department does not determine fault in ve…

> And yet the police were so quick to say that camera footage indicates that Uber was likely not at fault.

I was surprised at that -- it doesn't seem to me that the police would have the technical knowledge of Uber's hardware and algorithms to categorically state that, let alone so quickly.

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#108

Post by asdsa5325 »

etrautmann wrote: post #39
preparat wrote: post #37

Could people start wearing small transmitters that nearby autonomous vehicles can read?

Please no. You should not be required to carry a beacon in order to be safe walking around a city or crossing a street.

The woman who was hit ran across the road. It's easy to be safe: don't do that.

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#109

Post by mschuster91 »

Sargos wrote: post #64
preparat wrote: post #37

Could people start wearing small transmitters that nearby autonomous vehicles can read?

This is about as feasible as putting smart chips in all roads so that cars know where the lanes are.

> This is about as feasible as putting smart chips in all roads so that cars know where the lanes are.

Lanes are marked, usually. So why not embed something like an UV/IR-only color pigment in the lanes? Invisible so it doesn't affect human drivers but can easily be picked up by cameras.

Re: Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

#110

Post by asdsa5325 »

ksk wrote: post #75

Self-driving cars are still a fantasy. I don't want the AI to be comparable to an average driver (who collectively get into 6 million accidents) . I want the AI to meet/exceed the skills of the best driver. There is no way anyone would trust an "average" driver to pickup their kids, more than themselves.

Self-driving car companies have no intention of building an average system.
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