Whenever I almost get hit by a car while I'm walking around San Francisco, I'd say that 8 times out of 10 it's a Prius... so this is definitely welcome.
That's because 8 out of 10 cars in San Francisco are Priuses.
Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
31–40 of 74 posts
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't be surprised if groups that work with visually impaired people, for example, lobbied to get a minimum noise level added to regulations.
That's exactly the wrong approach. Better approach: Install a small wireless sender in the car that broadcasts at a given frequency. Then allow people who want a minimum noise level to buy a small receiver that broadcasts those signals (or another type of indication signal) to a headset. This allows you to keep the noise level down and at the same time provides "notifications" to the visually impaired.
That puts the onus on the visually impaired and safety-conscious to protect themselves, and I don't think thats something you want to do.
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't be surprised if groups that work with visually impaired people, for example, lobbied to get a minimum noise level added to regulations.
That's exactly the wrong approach. Better approach: Install a small wireless sender in the car that broadcasts at a given frequency. Then allow people who want a minimum noise level to buy a small receiver that broadcasts those signals (or another type of indication signal) to a headset. This allows you to keep the noise level down and at the same time provides "notifications" to the visually impaired.
Neat idea, but two significant problems.
1. Blind folks generally rely on directional sound. Knowing a car's nearby is better than nothing, but you can't tell how fast it's approaching you, from what direction.
2. In a city, it'd never stop beeping at you.
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#34Alerting driver of potential pedestrian = good Automatically making a decision (that the human is better at making) and potentially causing an accident due to a random sudden stop = bad
Are you saying it's worse to potentially cause an accident due to the sudden stop than to certainly have an accident as you run someone/thing over? I'm not sure I agree with you there.
Especially considering the difference in injury for a rear-end accident versus mowing down a pedestrian. Even if we assume that 100% of the time the car behind you will hit, the death toll is still likely much reduced.
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#35Volvo has this feature -- dubbed City Safety -- already on the road. It may seem snobbish to some, but I'd never let myself, my wife, and my future children drive anything but a Mercedes or Volvo. Between the two of them, they've been behind nearly every safety system developed in the last 40 years. I feel good about knowing that our hard work has let us put my wife in a car, for her 30 minute commute, that has 12 ai…
I'll buy my first car in a few months (at the tender age of 31). I was eyeing Mercedes already, and your comment only confirms everything I've read about it. Do you know if these features are available in their class C cars, or do I need to get an E class?
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#36Alerting driver of potential pedestrian = good Automatically making a decision (that the human is better at making) and potentially causing an accident due to a random sudden stop = bad
Are you saying it's worse to potentially cause an accident due to the sudden stop than to certainly have an accident as you run someone/thing over? I'm not sure I agree with you there.
This line of argument hinges on the assumption that braking input is the only means by which to avoid an accident. Cars have steering wheels and swerving is often an effective maneuver when attempting to avoid an accident.
Incidentally, heavy breaking reduces a car's ability to corner which may end up causing accidents which could otherwise be avoided.
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow that sounds scary. Does the prius have some noise generator you can turn on?
Perhaps install some big subwoofers in the trunk and play the music a little louder than is polite? (semi-serious here)
May I suggest whichever rap song has the chorus "Move, bitch, get out the way"?
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#38Alerting driver of potential pedestrian = good Automatically making a decision (that the human is better at making) and potentially causing an accident due to a random sudden stop = bad
> Automatically making a decision (that the human is better at making) What about when the car really is better at making that decision? IMHO, we are few scarce decades away from cars that will just be plain better drivers than the median meatbag.
We need some empirical data on this - run tests, get results, interpret them, etc. Until then, it's all a bunch of pointless what-ifs - "But what if I'm being carjacked and I need to get away, BUT Adolf Hitler is blocking my way, BUT ALSO he's carrying the baby Einstein, BUT ALSO it's actually evil Einstein!"
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#39This is great! But why does this (as well as Volvo's) car AI require no special permission from the law, but Google's car AI did?
Is it because we welcome an AI which breaks, but not one which drives? Why?
Because passive AIs are less scary than active ones? And active breaking is still perceived as a passive action?
Re: Toyota automatically stops car before it can hit pedestrian
#40Alerting driver of potential pedestrian = good Automatically making a decision (that the human is better at making) and potentially causing an accident due to a random sudden stop = bad
> Automatically making a decision (that the human is better at making) What about when the car really is better at making that decision? IMHO, we are few scarce decades away from cars that will just be plain better drivers than the median meatbag.
> IMHO, we are few scarce decades away from cars that will just be plain better drivers than the median meatbag.
...except that we've been a few scarce decades away from this for a few decades now. For the most part the history of this thought process is that we dramatically underestimate the problems involved.