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Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

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Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#401
post #131
post #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.

"however they may have been able to do a sharp swerve." As someone that enjoys racing cars and other types of high performance driving I feel like I can pretty confidently say this isn't even remotely a realistic statement. You're grossly overestimating human response times. Even if we're ignoring response time and imagining the driver instantly turning the steering wheel, large SUVs like the XC90 simply can't genera…

But as many people have pointed out, what the camera captured is not what the human eye would have seen. The eye has much better dynamic range; an alert driver would have had more time than what we can see on the video.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#402
post #316

To all the armchair experts: try recreating this accident scene in the real world. Sodium Vapour (monochromatic) lamps, then a large darker area with a pedestrian in dark clothing with car’s headlights dipped. You will be alarmed at how much stuff you can put on the road and not see it because the road has a lighting pattern that makes it less safe than no lights at all. With no lights at all, and a hedge between car…

Nope. That person + bike would have been completely trivial to detect with the LIDAR those cars have mounted on top.

The comparison should be against humans. It is humans that autonomous vehicles are being compared against.

Because the alternative to an AV is a human. So the only thing at all that matters is "is this better or worse than a human".

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#405

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.

This looks to me like it came from a $30 dash cam, not the car's main visual spectrum camera sensor.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#406

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…

What is striking to me is I haven't seen anyone talking about evasive maneuvers. The car must have been able to see the person, and the road looks empty, why not swerve?

Unlike a human the car has complete situational awareness so it should be able to safely swerve.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#407
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's important as a driver to hit the brakes as hard as you can even if you don't think you'll be able to avoid collision It's good to hit the brakes, yes, but the best way to avoid almost all collisions is to steer, not just to brake. Braking combined with steering sharply to the left (since the pedestrian was moving to the right) would have been the best response to this situation. (Note that, before anti…

Depending on your speed, that is very bad advice. Sounds like a recipe for losing traction and fish tailing (potentially into other cars or people or even stationary objects). There is only so much traction afforded by the contact patch on your tires. You can brake, you can turn, you can speed up but I would not recommend doing more than one at a time.

It seems like neither man nor machine took any steering or braking action -- advisable or not.

I also wonder what is the exact job responsibilities are for the human in the car. (The "test driver?") Would love to see the training materials for this role. Are they there to prevent accidents? Or to take over if the car gets "stuck?" (Or both)

This is all I was able to find. http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/21/technology/uber-test-driver-...

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#408
post #60

The first question that comes to my mind watching this, is, why didn't the _pedestrian_ see the _car_? It looks as though she didn't even look up until the car was only a few feet away from here. I'm not just trying to "blame the victim". The car "should" have responded sooner. But see-and-avoid works both ways. If you're choosing to cross a road in the dark, you, too, have a responsibility to understand the drivers'…

A theory that occurred to me last night is that if she was homeless, she may also have had an untreated eye condition such as myopia.

Articles claim she’s from Mesa, AZ. There’s nothing that suggests she’s homeless.

Re: Tempe Police Release Video of Uber Accident

#409

The first question that comes to my mind watching this, is, why didn't the _pedestrian_ see the _car_? It looks as though she didn't even look up until the car was only a few feet away from here. I'm not just trying to "blame the victim". The car "should" have responded sooner. But see-and-avoid works both ways. If you're choosing to cross a road in the dark, you, too, have a responsibility to understand the drivers'…

Maybe it was her exam week. /s
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