The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
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Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#2Chapter 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9526602 / https://medium.com/backchannel/the-view-from-the-front-seat-...
tl;dr: most accidents with Google cars were caused by distracted human drivers. Drive safely! Watch the road!
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#3The experiment's been going on for 6 years, so when can I have one?
I absolutely hate driving - a complete waste of 30+ minutes of my day, every day, and stressful too dealing with all the idiots on the road.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#4> National crashes-per-miles-driven rates are currently calculated on police-reported crashes.
This made me curious; wouldn't it make more sense to get that kind of data from crashes reported to insurance companies? At least here in Italy, most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#5> National crashes-per-miles-driven rates are currently calculated on police-reported crashes. This made me curious; wouldn't it make more sense to get that kind of data from crashes reported to insurance companies? At least here in Italy, most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
I would imagine one of the primary reasons for not reporting to the police in the USA is to avoid reporting to insurance companies. A claim makes one's premiums go up, often higher than it would take to amicably settle the issue between the drivers.
Note: I'm not commenting on the legality of such an approach, which varies by local law and the severity of the crash.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#6> National crashes-per-miles-driven rates are currently calculated on police-reported crashes. This made me curious; wouldn't it make more sense to get that kind of data from crashes reported to insurance companies? At least here in Italy, most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
As a fellow European, this also surprises me. However, IIRC, in the US a lot of accidents aren't reported to the insurance companies either, but are handled with cash transactions.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#7> National crashes-per-miles-driven rates are currently calculated on police-reported crashes. This made me curious; wouldn't it make more sense to get that kind of data from crashes reported to insurance companies? At least here in Italy, most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
On my case in France (countryside, don't know about large cities), most small damages are not even reported at all since both driver are fearing that the insurance would increase their monthly fee so people are giving cash to each other, it's quite common.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#8> National crashes-per-miles-driven rates are currently calculated on police-reported crashes. This made me curious; wouldn't it make more sense to get that kind of data from crashes reported to insurance companies? At least here in Italy, most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
On my case in France (countryside, don't know about large cities), most small damages are not even reported at all since both driver are fearing that the insurance would increase their monthly fee so people are giving cash to each other, it's quite common.
Very much the same in the UK as well. Most folk will try to avoid going through insurance. I'd rather be out of pocket for a few hundred £ than pay extra on insurance for the next few years.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#9> National crashes-per-miles-driven rates are currently calculated on police-reported crashes. This made me curious; wouldn't it make more sense to get that kind of data from crashes reported to insurance companies? At least here in Italy, most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
> most minor-but-with-small-damages crashes are reported to insurance companies, but not to the police.
I'm not sure if it's the same way in America, but in South Africa insurance companies will at least ping the police for information if you make a claim - so drivers generally always get them involved if they plan to claim.
The reason why that wouldn't work here is because there are a few hidden costs if you make a claim: people frequently fix small bumps out of their own pockets. This means that not even insurance companies have decent stats on the type of accidents that Google is talking about.
Could be similar in America.
Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2
#10It seems like the vast majority of collisions with google's AVs are rear-end collisions at intersections. I'm surprised that they haven't put any technology in place to attempt to avoid, or at least reduce the impact of these collisions. Clearly, predicting the trajectory of other vehicles should be second nature for the AVs.
In the video, there appears to be a shoulder with plenty of escape room.
Is there any attempt made to un-distract the driver? Flashing brake lights? Horn?
The June report from Google (http://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/reports/) contains some interesting language:
"The Google AV had been stopped for about 11 seconds at the time of the impact"
The cynic in me thinks they are intentionally avoiding technology to address these types of accidents so that they can unequivocally prove the the AV had no fault (i.e., had been stopped for x seconds).