Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 86 posts

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#11

Post by DanBC »

pmx wrote: post #8
realusername wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not reporting a crash to your insurance company is a bad idea - especially if you do it with the intention of reducing your insurance bill.

It means you are currently underinsured and maybe committing fraud.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#12

Post by sambeau »

I wonder how many of these driver errors are due to the assumption that the self-driven car will behave just like a human driven one?

It wouldn't take much — an unnecessary hesitation, a slow pull away or (on the other end of the spectrum) super-human reactions to cause me to rear-end someone.

Most of my near-collision experiences have been at a junction where I've judged a situation to be safe to pull into the road for both myself and the car in front, and I start to manoeuvre while doing my one last check into the oncoming traffic to verify its clear. My assumption is that the car in front will do the same but occasionally they don't and I have to stop suddenly to avoid collision. Every time I feel surprised and embarrassed. Why didn't I check? Truth is the other 400 times we all behaved as expected.

My point being, if the cars are still being limited in their speeds and are (as sometimes reported) a little ponderous in the middle of a manoeuvre maybe it is their behaviour that is causing some of these 'driver' errors.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#13

Post by 300bps »

sambeau wrote: post #12

I wonder how many of these driver errors are due to the assumption that the self-driven car will behave just like a human driven one? It wouldn't take much — an unnecessary hesitation, a slow pull away or (on the other end of the spectrum) super-human reactions to cause me to rear-end someone. Most of my near-collision experiences have been at a junction where I've judged a situation to be safe to pull into the road…

The one time I rear-ended someone in my life I was doing what you described. It was fully my fault and the result of me trying to gain approximately two seconds on my trip. Fortunately that was over twenty years ago and I haven't repeated the mistake.

I see autonomous cars as the solution to this problem.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#14

Post by DanBC »

sambeau wrote: post #12

I wonder how many of these driver errors are due to the assumption that the self-driven car will behave just like a human driven one? It wouldn't take much — an unnecessary hesitation, a slow pull away or (on the other end of the spectrum) super-human reactions to cause me to rear-end someone. Most of my near-collision experiences have been at a junction where I've judged a situation to be safe to pull into the road…

> It wouldn't take much — an unnecessary hesitation, a slow pull away or (on the other end of the spectrum) super-human reactions to cause me to rear-end someone.

If you rear end someone it is almost always[1] your fault, and in the examples you give it's definitely your fault.

I'm a little bit surprised that you describe this as the fault of the Google cars.

[1] ALMOST

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#15

Post by sdoering »

rwmj wrote: post #3

The 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.

I really love driving - but I hate the 60 or so minutes per day stuck in idiotic traffic on my way from and to work.

OK, podcasts make live bearable, but I would love to do way more during this time.

I imagine having a 4G network and being able to use this time for working remotely.

What a nice thought - being home 1 hour early and quite relaxed...

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#16

Post by DanBC »

danmaz74 wrote: post #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.

How many employees with cars does Google have? It could offer a voluntary system where they fit data gathering boxes to every willing employee's car. A bit like the insurance-reducing boxes currently used.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#17

Post by sdoering »

DanBC wrote: post #11
pmx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not reporting a crash to your insurance company is a bad idea - especially if you do it with the intention of reducing your insurance bill. It means you are currently underinsured and maybe committing fraud.

Could you please provide legislation for that? I would not believe, that you would commit fraud when not reporting an accident and paying for repair yourself. At least not in Germany, where I am from.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#18

Post by 300bps »

jdscriven wrote: post #10

It 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 attemp…

Is there any attempt made to un-distract the driver? Flashing brake lights? Horn?

This sounds too similar to victim blaming. In my opinion any action taken by someone who is about to be hit from behind in a low speed crash is likely to make the problem worse. I don't think that is the time to have a quick jerky motion into the shoulder of the road. Even honking the horn could distract or panic another driver that then causes a crash.

To me the solution is to eliminate distracted driving.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#19

Post by ecopoesis »

danmaz74 wrote: post #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.

As others have pointed out, lots of small accidents aren't reported for fear of rates going up. But there also just a lot of people without insurance. Bizarrely, not every state requires car insurance, so some people just don't have it.

Re: The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car, Chapter 2

#20

Post by inthewoods »

These cars could be so freeing for so many segments of society. I agree with everyone that reducing the commuting annoyance would be awesome - imagine not having to worry about parking your car in the city anymore. You drive in on a highway at 90mph, get dropped off and then the car goes home or onto another task or gets shared out. Amazing. I'm even more excited about getting the elderly out of their homes safely, and getting drunk people off the road altogether.

It's easy to play out the use cases and see why Uber is investing in this area and why it feels threatened by this technology advance.

Post reply on HN