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Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

spectrum.ieee.org

451–460 of 769 posts

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#451

Better driver education and higher test standards would save lives too. So would banning alcohol. None of these solutions, including automated cars, will be mandated any time soon. It's not enough to have data, you also have to have societal buy-in. Interesting that Waymo chooses to compare accident rates with the average driver vs the rideshare drivers their cars replace. The numbers wouldn't look as impressive beca…

National Safety Council says passenger vehicles are 0.46 per 100M miles, trains are 0.01 and busses 0.009. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics...

Per highway mile, now, I am not sure if overall is better or worse. But it seems to be a discrepancy to Waymo measurement.

Also not sure if Waymo data includes pedestrian deaths? (NSC seems not to)

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#452
The safest car is the one that is parked. I’m not anti-car but in terms of safety we should focus more on getting people using bus/rail/bike/walk especially for daily needs. It’s more cost effective too. Autonomous cars are cool and will be great for reducing crashes, but it’s an additive solution, not a subtractive one.

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#453

From a policy standpoint…I wonder about creating a rule that anyone who got a DUI could get an amended license where they could legally operate only autonomous vehicles. First DUI is a permanent AV-only license. Since 7 million people have DUI’s, that one policy change would completely reshape the industry.

You don’t need a license for that.

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#455

Autonomous vehicles don’t drink and drive. That alone will save millions worldwide yearly.

Most people don't drink and drive. It's really only in the US where people still seem to think it's acceptable to drive drunk.

2nd cause of deaths in cars in the world and in the US too. Top of the list is speeding.

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#456
post #286
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a biker, I've had human drivers intentionally try to drive me off the road or hit me. Neither driver education nor higher test standards will solve that problem.

[flagged]

The bike derangement syndrome in the US is truly something to behold.

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AVs and public transportation are not comparable. The cumulative lifetime investment in Waymo would not fund even half a year of capital expenses for the New York MTA, for example.

I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. The most expensive part of self driving cars is building the roads and highways. Would make more sense to compare Waymo to the operating expenses of PT, hiring the drivers and maintaining the trains.

Building roads for buses are _few orders of magnitude more_ expensive than roads for cars only.

Unfortunately we still have trucking, but it's starting to feel we should build separate roads for them and for special cases only allow multi-axle delivery trucks on normal roads.

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#458
post #281

Better driver education and higher test standards would save lives too. So would banning alcohol. None of these solutions, including automated cars, will be mandated any time soon. It's not enough to have data, you also have to have societal buy-in. Interesting that Waymo chooses to compare accident rates with the average driver vs the rideshare drivers their cars replace. The numbers wouldn't look as impressive beca…

As a biker, I've had human drivers intentionally try to drive me off the road or hit me. Neither driver education nor higher test standards will solve that problem.

Earlier today saw a guy on a pick up truck griefing an empty Waymo by brake checking and boxing it, all over the road for about 10 minutes and over 5 blocks (no idea how much earlier it started), causing every other driver to freak out or be confused about what was going on.

All the while all I could think was "you're spending your time making it more likely for a collision to happen, all to 'anger' a toaster with 360° camera coverage".

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#459

It could, but maybe not if your motto is, "Move Fast and Break Things." Article is short on data instead referencing a bunch of aggregated IIHS studies.

Waymo's mission is literally "to be the world's most trusted driver" They put safety above all else and actually goal to it.

This is a stunning attempt to rewrite history.

> It was Levandowski who...had persuaded Google’s leadership to spend millions of dollars inventing self-driving cars.

> Some of the biggest fights involved risks that Levandowski was taking in self-driving experiments. ... “If it is your job to advance technology, safety cannot be your No. 1 concern,” Levandowski told me. “If it is, you’ll never do anything. It’s always safer to leave the car in the driveway. You’ll never learn from a real mistake.” [0]

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/22/did-uber-steal...

Re: Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't say that, and you shouldn't put words in his mouth like that.

I am not putting words in his mouth. I am pointing out the logical error in this memetic argument that cyclists are tired of reading again and again. Whenever we mention that drivers harass and kill cyclists, there is somebody retorting that "cyclists don't follow the rules of the road", as if it somehow justified road violence against all cyclists, law abiding or not. It is a complete non-sequitur that pops up every…

I read it as doing a mimic of the bad logic in the argument he replied to in order point out the flaw there via sarcasm. Random anecdotes don't prove anything about large classes of people, whether cyclists or car drivers.
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