31–40 of 124 posts
That's tricky. So you need to be able to take control of the car quickly in an emergency, but at the same time you want the human pseudodriver to be free to be distracted or drowsy, and so in a state where they could accidentally hit this button.
They should really have two test drivers there, though.
Poor UX, poor safety controls. At this stage in the game, these prototype vehicles should absolutely detect whether or not their operators are paying attention, since they’re part of the safety system of the vehicle. Also, did they not learn from Uber’s fatal crash? A sole operator in these vehicles is a terrible idea. One person to monitor road conditions and one person to operate any computer equipment should be th…
these prototype vehicles should absolutely detect whether or not their operators are paying attention The car did warn the driver with two audio signals, what more should it do?
It's so sad how these companies are spending billions on developing this technology and then still cheap out on the test drivers by having them drive solo and for too long hours (and presumably at minimum wage)
Waymo's vehicle operators make $20 bucks an hour. The driver was about an hour into his shift when he dozed off.
It's an interesting edge case that you might not think of, or thinking the odds might be "one in a million" and not design for it; I wonder how many driving hours etc have occurred so far (and other statistical analysis to breakdown different contexts) before this "one in a million" event occurred.
It's so sad how these companies are spending billions on developing this technology and then still cheap out on the test drivers by having them drive solo and for too long hours (and presumably at minimum wage)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Waymo's vehicle operators make $20 bucks an hour. The driver was about an hour into his shift when he dozed off.
The lack of requirement for driver input is what causes the operator to drift off or fall asleep. The same reason they put test/dummy positive weapon images that aren't physically present in the xray image stream at security checkpoints; to keep the operator alert. If you have a human overseer in the seat, you want to find ways to continue to keep them engaged even if it isn't necessary for the vehicle's autonomy.
When it's time to disengage the vehicle you don't want to be fighting for control with the computer, manual override needs to be on a hair trigger in case the computer makes a sudden error. Unfortunately so long as there's a human in the loop, the propensity for human error is going to be there. I honestly don't know what Waymo could do to prevent this, multiple bells and whistles went off.
Waymo takes this stuff very seriously, they absolutely do not want to have to face the music should one of their vehicles get into an at-fault accident or suffer some other kind of catastrophic failure.
I just did a Google News search for "asleep at the wheel", and in the last week a few people have been killed, a few more hospitalized, and the more minor incidents don't even get reported. Waymo sincerely wants to solve this, but there's an awkward no-mans land between no autonomy and fully autonomous where Vigilance Decrement[1] is an issue.
Fortunately this was a minor accident. Waymo's test fleet reportedly covers 25,000 miles a day, and in regular day to day driving minor accidents happen about once every 160,000 miles. So if incidents like this are happening once a week for Waymo, that's about par for the course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilance_(psychology)#Vigilan...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
these prototype vehicles should absolutely detect whether or not their operators are paying attention The car did warn the driver with two audio signals, what more should it do?
Not crash?
That tester detected a serious bug in the whole concept, inadvertently risking his life during testing. He should've been promoted.
This is definitely the correct response - what is the role of testing if not to uncover flaws in both design and implementation?
Poor UX, poor safety controls. At this stage in the game, these prototype vehicles should absolutely detect whether or not their operators are paying attention, since they’re part of the safety system of the vehicle. Also, did they not learn from Uber’s fatal crash? A sole operator in these vehicles is a terrible idea. One person to monitor road conditions and one person to operate any computer equipment should be th…
What's the point if you have to pay attention? I'm being serious when I ask. I question weather people can safely use these vehicles in these modes where they're supposed to not interact ... but pay close attention at the same time. I think it is going to have to be full autonomy, or not at all.
Poor UX, poor safety controls. At this stage in the game, these prototype vehicles should absolutely detect whether or not their operators are paying attention, since they’re part of the safety system of the vehicle. Also, did they not learn from Uber’s fatal crash? A sole operator in these vehicles is a terrible idea. One person to monitor road conditions and one person to operate any computer equipment should be th…
That tester detected a serious bug in the whole concept, inadvertently risking his life during testing. He should've been promoted.
The statement is the "Driver no longer works for waymo" not that "they were fired for the incident.".
That feels somewhat deliberate choice of words to me.