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San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

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Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#291

Post by jaywalk »

rafale wrote: post #265
jwr wrote: post #72

I am really worried by the fact that I am the unwilling tester in the Great Driverless Car Experiment. Tradition has it that when you load-test a new bridge, you put the architect underneath. I feel like this, except I didn't design those driverless cars, somebody else did. Being an experienced software engineer, my trust in the software in these cars is pretty low. And yet they are testing them on me, because I can…

I didn't know they load test bridges. Wouldn't that put unnecessary wear on the structure and age it prematurely?

What? No, not at all. The bridge has to be able to handle the max load, otherwise it's not safe. If the load test causes any issues with the bridge, that is a massive red flag.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#292

Post by jaywalk »

jwr wrote: post #72

I am really worried by the fact that I am the unwilling tester in the Great Driverless Car Experiment. Tradition has it that when you load-test a new bridge, you put the architect underneath. I feel like this, except I didn't design those driverless cars, somebody else did. Being an experienced software engineer, my trust in the software in these cars is pretty low. And yet they are testing them on me, because I can…

> Tradition has it that when you load-test a new bridge, you put the architect underneath.

Do you have any more info on this? It's a fascinating fact.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#293

Post by axg11 »

nkingsy wrote: post #279

Just my anecdote, saw a cruise car trying to turn left from the middle lane on Franklin. Came to a complete stop, bringing traffic to a halt, and waited for the cars on its left to clear out, including anyone who went around, then cautiously moved into the left lane and turned. Some kind of rude, selfish programming I’d be yelling at a person for.

I wonder if Cruise or other AVs have a programmed threshold to "give up"? A human driver in the middle lane might decide to keep driving on and take a different route rather than hold those people up.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#294

Post by jaywalk »

fatnoah wrote: post #252
swozey wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't driven a modern car in a decade or more that didn't have light sensors in the dashboard to know when to automatically turn on lights. They even turn them on when the wipers are engaged. Everytime you go through a tunnel you'll see headlights pop on automatically. My 2009 BMW is the oldest car I have that has auto lights, but it doesn't have wiper sensors. Older cars? Of course not.

The problem with auto lights is that they can be turned off or set into other modes that prevent the auto part from working. Throw in drivers who don't seem to notice that their headlights are not or barely illuminating the road and we get what I experienced over the weekend. Maybe there's hope: https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/make-sure-your-headlights-a...

My current car (2020 model year) defaults to Auto every time the car is started. I haven't had a car without auto headlights in a very long time, but this is the first one that actually defaults back to Auto.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#295

Post by rootusrootus »

jeffbee wrote: post #147
bin_bash wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mechanics need to be able to turn them off when they work on them or they’ll get blinded. Every car I’ve driven in the last 10 years seems to have an auto mode though. I’d be surprised if the Chevy’s these are based on don’t have an auto mode. It could be that a fuse blew here.

It could also be that some bumbling meat-man clumsily knocked the switch out of the "Auto" position. The Bolt has a truly idiotic headlight switch which always indicates "Auto" even when its been disabled by turning the switch counterclockwise. In Canada it's programmed to reset to Auto every time the car is started, but not the U.S. model. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZlYCSmtD_4

> In Canada it's programmed to reset to Auto every time the car is started, but not the U.S. model.

That's a Volt. My Bolt & Camaro (in the US...) also have momentary switches that default to auto, and they both actually default to auto. You can only turn off the headlights until the next time you turn off the car.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#296

Post by MisterTea »

nkingsy wrote: post #279

Just my anecdote, saw a cruise car trying to turn left from the middle lane on Franklin. Came to a complete stop, bringing traffic to a halt, and waited for the cars on its left to clear out, including anyone who went around, then cautiously moved into the left lane and turned. Some kind of rude, selfish programming I’d be yelling at a person for.

> Some kind of rude, selfish programming I’d be yelling at a person for.

Sounds like an inexperienced or incompetent driver who lacks confidence. Basically, the kind of driver that shouldn't be on the road.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#297

Post by _hhkc »

lubujackson wrote: post #247

The real surprise here is that SF police pulled over a car at all. Have been here for more than a decade and I can count the times I have seen a car pulled over in SF on one finger - meanwhile, I have seen numerous cars blow through red lights, speeding, U-turns in the middle of the street etc. in front of police with no response.

Yeah this is the real surprise for me as well. How many cars drive around SF with no license plates and the SFPD doesn't do anything about it.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#298

Post by rootusrootus »

fatnoah wrote: post #226
IgorPartola wrote: post #88

Being used to riding motorcycles in the US, why are headlights not always on for all vehicles at this point? LED bulbs last a very long time and there is little reason to not have them on during the day. I know, it’s much more fun to anthropomorphize the car in this case, but the simple solution is to just hard wire them.

I'm also not sure why this is a thing. With all of the various sensors, etc. in cars, there's safeguards to prevent me from typing an address in the GPS while moving, so why can't there be something that turns your headlights on while driving at night above a certain speed. On Saturday, I drove from NJ to MA and saw 3 vehicles on the highway at night with only daytime running lamps, and one with no lights on whatsoev…

The Bolt has auto headlights, something malfunctioned.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#299

Post by ethanbond »

carabiner wrote: post #287
jwr wrote: post #72

I am really worried by the fact that I am the unwilling tester in the Great Driverless Car Experiment. Tradition has it that when you load-test a new bridge, you put the architect underneath. I feel like this, except I didn't design those driverless cars, somebody else did. Being an experienced software engineer, my trust in the software in these cars is pretty low. And yet they are testing them on me, because I can…

You didn't design the aircraft that you fly on, which are incredibly computerized. Also the drugs that your doctor prescribes. Etc. You put your faith in myriad bureaucracies and trust networks that you have no hope of understanding. Driverless cars are just one more added to the list.

Neither aircraft nor drug development norms look anything like the norms of software development. I actually find a substantial difference in my trust level between a traditional car company that's building self-driving capabilities (e.g. Mercedes) than a company that fashions itself as a software company that happens to build cars (e.g. Tesla) for exactly the reason of the norms and behaviors that each org would encourage.

Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on

#300

Post by [deleted] »

jwr wrote: post #72

I am really worried by the fact that I am the unwilling tester in the Great Driverless Car Experiment. Tradition has it that when you load-test a new bridge, you put the architect underneath. I feel like this, except I didn't design those driverless cars, somebody else did. Being an experienced software engineer, my trust in the software in these cars is pretty low. And yet they are testing them on me, because I can…

[deleted]
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