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Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

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Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#271

Post by JustSomeNobody »

vkou wrote: post #158
atonse wrote: post #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 t…

> 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. This was taken by a video camera - which has a much lower range of detectable brightness then the human eye. The pitch-black spots in the video are almost certainly not pitch-black if you were to look at them.

This car should have slowed down below the speed limit if it cannot safely stop or maneuver upon seeing something enter its field of view.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#272

Post by taneq »

philip1209 wrote: post #254
chrsstrm wrote: post #16

The description given before the video was released painted a picture in my mind that the woman was on the median and "suddenly" entered the roadway in front of the vehicle. I pictured someone darting across the road directly in front of the car, with no way to stop in time. This video shows a completely different scenario. The woman started on the median, but the vehicle was in the #2 lane. She wasn't visible to the…

Bikes are mainly curved, small pieces of metal, and absorptive pieces of rubber. Their reflectors are designed for viewing them from the front or rear, not the sides. I wonder whether lidar can even differentiate a sideways bike from noise.

Even if the bike itself was too spindly to be picked up, there's no excuse for missing the solid mass of a human body.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#273

Post by blurbleblurble »

fudged71 wrote: post #251

I do wonder if perhaps Uber made the video darker before releasing. Or used a camera that is not the main sensing camera. Because I would hope the cars are smart enough to increase ISO to get more detail at night time.

I wouldn't be one bit surprised. The antics of this company are well known. This incident has my wondering: of all the companies working on this, why is Uber trusted to be testing this technology?

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#274

Post by [deleted] »

booleandilemma wrote: post #132

The Uber Safety Driver behind the wheel when the incident occurred: Rafaela Vasquez, 44 She has convictions for attempted armed robbery after a plot with her Blockbuster video store co-worker to seize their own shop’s takings at gunpoint in 2001. Vasquez was convicted under her first name Rafael but she now identifies as a woman. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/934713/uber-self-drivin...

[deleted]

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#275

Post by hcknwscommenter »

jmharvey wrote: post #172

As presented, this looks like a pretty classic "overdriving your headlights" situation. Even though they're made of retroreflective material, only two lane divider dashes at a time can be seen in the video, indicating something like 50 feet of visibility. Stopping from 38 mph takes 70+ feet from the time the brakes are applied (and human reaction time adds quite a bit more). Things (people, animals, stopped cars, roa…

I think you are missing a key point here. Have you ever been on a street with streetlights and had difficulty seeing past two lane divider dashes? The point is that the camera footage is vastly under-indicating the amount of distance a human eye would have been able to see.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#276

Post by TaylorGood »

lsaferite wrote: post #261
booleandilemma wrote: post #132

The Uber Safety Driver behind the wheel when the incident occurred: Rafaela Vasquez, 44 She has convictions for attempted armed robbery after a plot with her Blockbuster video store co-worker to seize their own shop’s takings at gunpoint in 2001. Vasquez was convicted under her first name Rafael but she now identifies as a woman. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/934713/uber-self-drivin...

And your point is what exactly?

Accident aside, if Uber is so "strict" on their background checks for drivers, how do they let a convicted robber be apart of their high profile pilot?

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#278

Post by nanis »

This is pure speculation, but it is my working theory: The car's so called "AI" thought the thing in front of it was a four legged animal (e.g., see " rel="nofollow">https://goo.gl/images/3qAmiM>).

In most states, braking for animals in a way that might endanger others on the road is illegal. So, it decided to go ahead and hit the thing in front of it on purpose.

I am not sure if the people who program the firmware for these contraptions have ever driven cars in difficult conditions. Between Teslas ramming into trucks and Uber cars taking out poor homeless people for a bonus score, it seems to me they are programming things, but they have no idea how this stuff is supposed to function outside of ideal parameters.

Sure, provide the driver with more information. But, taking the driver out of the responsibility equation is stupid.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#279

Post by mirimir »

neom wrote: post #208
mirimir wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed! To LIDAR, she was basically standing in the lane, with a bulky bicycle. To visible light, including the driver, who was apparently half asleep or watching the dashboard, she was in shadow until just before the collision. So yes, LIDAR should have caught this. Easily. So something was clearly misconfigured. And even if the driver had been carefully watching the road, he probably wouldn't have seen her in time.…

Right, so assuming LIDAR caught her: I'd imagine the algorithm presumed that she wouldn't cross the center line till she did cross the line, I don't know what to think the algorithm would do there after?

Not "center line", because this is a divided highway. So she had to cross two lanes from the median, in order to step in front of the Uber. "Human-sized object in the roadway" should have been enough to trigger braking, even if the trajectory wasn't clear.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#280

Post by user5994461 »

freehunter wrote: post #204
jonathanyc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need to stop. Slowing from 40 to 30mph decreases the fatality rate by an order of magnitude. Maybe the car shouldn’t have been going above the speed limit if the conditions were so poor that it couldn’t plausibly see humans walking right in front of it.

That's an argument intended only to shift blame and distract. The car was going 38 in a 35 which is well within the legal margin of error on a speedometer[1]. For all we know, the speedometer read exactly 35. There's enough blame to go around between the driver who was obviously texting and the woman illegally jaywalking, you don't need to invent a false controversy. [1] https://www.caranddriver.com/features/speedome…

I recall reading that the speed guns where I am from have a tolerance of 5 km/h or 5%, whichever is greater.

3 mph is beyond the margin for error, you'd get fined for driving that quickly.

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