The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car • Hacker News Board

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#41

Post by Anm » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:35 PM UTC

Squarel wrote: post #29

buss wrote: post #17

Every time I hear about the amazingly low accident rates in current generation self-driving cars I'm reminded of this joke (unfortunately I can't remember the source): Grandpa, what did you do before self-driving cars? Well, we just drove them ourselves. We just needed a little practice and to take a test. Wow, and nobody got killed!? Oh, no, millions of people died.

This will only be the case when all cars are self-driving. Many of these articles do not give a comparison...so,11 per 1.7m miles sounds awesome, but how do you know what the current rate is? The data I found had a passenger vehicle fatal crash per 100m miles as between 1.0 and 1.33, and a property damage only crash rate per 100m miles of 145, which relate to 0.01 fatalities per 1m miles, and 1.45 property only crash…

The article is pretty clear that most of the light-damage, no-injury accidents don't get reported, and that all 11 accidents fell in that category. Half the point of the article is that this data is not well known.

Granted, taking those 1.45 and 55% figures, we might compare the 11 accidents to approximately 3.2 accident (reported and unreported) per million miles in passenger vehicles. Emphasis on "approximately".

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#42

Post by paulornothing » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:35 PM UTC

I'm pretty excited for the prospect of a self driving car. My commute is about 40 miles round trip not too traffic ridden but I wouldn't mind relaxing a little. I would rather telework more often than two days a week, but it looks like he self driving car is more imminent.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#43

Post by NovaS1X » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:35 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #15

comrade1 wrote: post #4

One thing I'm looking forward to with self-driving cars is to be able to step into a street anywhere and have all the traffic stop automatically. Every inch of street now becomes a crosswalk. Even highways. (This is an ironic statement)

Automatically != instantaneously. You'd have to make sure the car is far away enough that speed(car)^2/distance(you, car) You can't play blindfolded frogger. EDIT: "friction" is a better function name than "mu", even though we all feel nostalgic for high school physics.

Yep!

Latency and Inertia still exist with autocars. Anyone wishing to challenge physics may as well be awarded a Darwin Award.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#44

Post by Cakez0r » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:36 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #15

comrade1 wrote: post #4

One thing I'm looking forward to with self-driving cars is to be able to step into a street anywhere and have all the traffic stop automatically. Every inch of street now becomes a crosswalk. Even highways. (This is an ironic statement)

Automatically != instantaneously. You'd have to make sure the car is far away enough that speed(car)^2/distance(you, car) You can't play blindfolded frogger. EDIT: "friction" is a better function name than "mu", even though we all feel nostalgic for high school physics.

I can't possibly work that out. The only answer is self-driving segways!

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#45

Post by dilipd » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:37 PM UTC

jordn wrote: post #16

I'm wondering if the self driving cars should report these bad drivers.

DMV/Police could benefit by buying a few of these cars to monitor traffic. Good cost/benefit for 24 hour untiring watch.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#46

Post by ams6110 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:38 PM UTC

pdxandi wrote: post #36

Squarel wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will only be the case when all cars are self-driving. Many of these articles do not give a comparison...so,11 per 1.7m miles sounds awesome, but how do you know what the current rate is? The data I found had a passenger vehicle fatal crash per 100m miles as between 1.0 and 1.33, and a property damage only crash rate per 100m miles of 145, which relate to 0.01 fatalities per 1m miles, and 1.45 property only crash…

I think it's important to note that the 11 accidents the self-driving cars were involved in were the fault of the other driver.

At fault doesn't always mean "sole contributor" to the cause of the accident.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#47

Post by jonknee » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:38 PM UTC

emptybits wrote: post #9

For balance: In the past eight months, four of the 48 self-driving cars licensed in California were involved in accidents. Three were Lexus SUVs from Google. http://www.startribune.com/ap-exclusive-self-driving-cars-ge... This does not assign blame. It is an observation.

For more balance, they have been driven a ridiculous number of miles more than the average car so saying "4 of 48" got ran into (since none were the fault of the self-driving car!) is intentionally misleading.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#48

Post by ams6110 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:40 PM UTC

tablatom wrote: post #21

jordn wrote: post #16

I'm wondering if the self driving cars should report these bad drivers.

I was thinking the same thing. If Google start logging license plate numbers (and, hey, it's Google), they could build a database of known dangerous vehicles and automatically give them a wide berth.

So it's OK for Google to record license plates, but it's flip-out time when the police do it?

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#49

Post by ams6110 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:41 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #26

toomuchtodo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also from article this thread is tied to: > If you spend enough time on the road, accidents will happen whether you’re in a car or a self-driving car. Over the 6 years since we started the project, we’ve been involved in 11 minor accidents (light damage, no injuries) during those 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel, and not once was the self-driving car the caus…

I'm curious many of these miles were on snow and ice.

In Mountain View? I'm not from around there but I'd guess zero?

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car

#50

Post by agumonkey » Mon, May 11, 2015, 7:42 PM UTC

ender7 wrote: post #14

cyphunk wrote: post #2

Imagine that for a moment: Self driving car companies could promise to pay all accident expenses provided it was on auto drive at the time of accident. Not only is that a marketing win, potentially reducing accidents and saving costs for owners... if you jump forward many years of Google (or other) defending owners in court you would reach a point even judges would be biased to believe that the auto-driven car could…

Keep in mind that every autocar will have an extremely accurate recording of the accident that can be analyzed and played back during a hearing. Determining fault will be trivial in almost all cases.

Accidents, when non fatal, are such a waste of anyone's resources. And there are so many way to be cheated. I'm stunned no manufacturer included a logging device. Nowadays you have dash cams though.