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Self-Driving Car Makers Prepare to Blame “Jaywalkers”

usa.streetsblog.org

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: Self-Driving Car Makers Prepare to Blame “Jaywalkers”

#32
post #8

In many European cities it's quite common for pedestrians to pass on red (which is considered more of a warning), even in front of cop cars. I've also seen cops on foot cross the street on red. And I've seen quite a number cross the street randomly among traffic, some of them barely able to move (old, ...)

In France if there is a collision between a car and a pedestrian the car is always at fault unless it can be proved the pedestrian was committing suicide.

In the UK pedestrians have right of way.

If one deliberately jumps out on you it's obviously the pedestrians fault if you hit them. However if someone is already crossing the road you slow down and let them cross, it takes a few seconds out of a journey and you only need to break gently or just back off the accelerator.

Australia seems a different attitude. Crossing the road, they'll point the car straight at you and accelerate for being on the road, even if there's a queue of traffic a few meters ahead they are not going to get through.

Re: Self-Driving Car Makers Prepare to Blame “Jaywalkers”

#33
http://moralmachine.mit.edu The general law is that people always have the right of way unless it's unavoidable. It's important that self driving cars do their best to not kill people and follow the law. Though, I don't think all these 'kinks' will be out for another 10 years.

Re: Self-Driving Car Makers Prepare to Blame “Jaywalkers”

#34
post #7

My ignorant understanding is that pedestrians have the right-of-way, even mid-block.

It varies by jurisdiction. TFA says, > Ng’s quote itself suggests he doesn’t understand crosswalk laws. Every intersection is technically an unmarked crosswalk And that's only true in some places too. Laws vary from place to place: >> Nine states and the District of Columbia require motorists to stop when approaching a pedestrian in an uncontrolled crosswalk. * http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-c…

"Crossing at an uncontrolled crosswalk" is specifically not jaywalking, it simply means that it has no traffic control mechanism (e.g. a traffic light activateable by a pedestrian).

Re: Self-Driving Car Makers Prepare to Blame “Jaywalkers”

#35
The problem with this is that jaywalkers aren't the only things that could be in the road. There are animals, things falling it of other vehicles, construction debris and so on... Yeah it would be cool if people didn't walk in front of a car. It would be even cooler if the car could not hit things. Like that is the whole point of self driving cars, to drive better than humans can.

Re: Self-Driving Car Makers Prepare to Blame “Jaywalkers”

#36
It also seems they incorporate the 'if a situation is unclear, stick to the speed limit' heuristic that many human drivers also use.

The car did not brake because it detected a 'false positive'??!

The Uber Volvo SUV that hit her as she walked her bike in a pedestrian-heavy area had a hard time identifying her, plus the car was programmed not to brake if it believed it had detected “false positive.”

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