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Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

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Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#21
post #4

I knew the woman was coming up in the video and I didn't see her until it would have been too late. The driver definitely seemed distracted by a device of some kind.

That’s only because there’s no light on her until the end. The car hardware should have seen her. If it doesn’t work in the dark it shouldn’t be on the road imho.

Well, if we're demanding robocars that are better than people at this task, then that is a higher standard than we currently enjoy.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#22
post #14

Wow, I had thought it impossible for the Uber AV to be in the right lane, and for the victim to be crossing left-to-right, for the police to claim that the victim couldn't be seen until it was too late. But I didn't expect the road to be so dark, given what we saw in the accident photos (which might have been over-exposed?) and Google Maps, which showed a lot of street/sidewalk lighting. In the moment that we can ful…

LiDAR is not affected by the amount of visible (sun) light. I'm very curious to see the data returned from the LiDAR, because this should've been a very clear human frame, albeit with a bike behind it.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#23
I think this brings up an interesting philosophy for autonomous driving technology - is it feasible if it's "only as good as human driving"?

I mean I've seen comments that a human might not have seen the pedestrian. Is that a "defense" of driving AI? That's it's about as good as human driving?

Seems to me the public won't accept driverless cars unless there is significant evidence that it's much better than human drivers - after all human drivers make a lot of mistakes and cause a lot of fatalities. I don't think any other claims of the advantages of AI driving could offset any negative publicity of injury or death.

Just a thought in the context of this tragedy.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#25
How did LIDAR and IR not catch that? That seems like a pretty serious problem.

It's clear from the video that a human driver actually would've had more trouble since the pedestrian showed up in the field of view right before the collision, yet that's in the visible spectrum.

When I argue for automated driving (as a casual observer), I tell people about exactly this sort of stuff (a computer can look in 20 places at the same time, a human can't. a computer can see in the dark, a human can't).

Yet this crash proves that all the equipment in the world didn't catch a very obvious obstruction.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#29
On the one hand, the cyclist became visible in the footage at a very late stage. If that is how the drivers eye saw it they would have very little time to react, however they may have been able to do a sharp swerve.

On the other, the operator was clearly distracted regardless of if they would have been able to avoid this.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#30

This time it actually has the video. And it is a poignant reminder that there is no such thing as a too reflective vest for bicyclists.

> there is no such thing as a too reflective vest for bicyclists

And to not jaywalk a bike across a street in the dark!

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