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Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

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Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss the time when "confused" for a computer program was meant in a humorous way.

> miss the time when "confused" for a computer program was meant in a humorous way Not sure what about this isn’t funny. Nobody died. And the notion that traffic lights going down would not have otherwise caused congestion seems silly.

Not directly. But what about the emergency services not being able to reach their destinations? It stops being funny really fast

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#22
post #6

I'm surprised that either: 1. Nobody at Waymo thought of this, 2. Somebody did think of it but it wasn't considered important enough to prioritize, or 3. They tried to prep the cars for this and yet they nonetheless failed so badly

Everyone should have understood that driving requires improvisation in the face of uncommon but inevitable bespoke challenges that this generation of AI is not suited for. Either because it's common sense or because so many people have been shouting it for so long.

I'd say driving only requires not to handle uncommon situation dangerously. And stopping when you can't handle something fits my criteria.

Also I'm not sure it's entirely AI's fault. What do you do when you realistically have to break some rules? Like here, I assume you'd have to cut someone off if you don't want to wait forever. Who's gonna build a car that breaks rules sometimes, and what regulator will approve it?

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#23
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone should have understood that driving requires improvisation in the face of uncommon but inevitable bespoke challenges that this generation of AI is not suited for. Either because it's common sense or because so many people have been shouting it for so long.

But a citywide blackout isn’t that uncommon.

It isn't? To me that's the main problem here, as this should be an exceptionally rare occurrence.

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#24
post #6

I'm surprised that either: 1. Nobody at Waymo thought of this, 2. Somebody did think of it but it wasn't considered important enough to prioritize, or 3. They tried to prep the cars for this and yet they nonetheless failed so badly

Everyone should have understood that driving requires improvisation in the face of uncommon but inevitable bespoke challenges that this generation of AI is not suited for. Either because it's common sense or because so many people have been shouting it for so long.

What improvisation is required? A traffic light being out is a standard problem with a standard solution. It's just a four-way stop.

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#25
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone should have understood that driving requires improvisation in the face of uncommon but inevitable bespoke challenges that this generation of AI is not suited for. Either because it's common sense or because so many people have been shouting it for so long.

But a citywide blackout isn’t that uncommon.

> But a citywide blackout isn’t that uncommon.

I think too many people talk past each other when they use the word common, especially when talking about car trips.

A blackout (doesn't have to be citywide) may not be periodic but it's certainly frequent with a frequency above 1 per year.

Many people say "common" meaning "frequent", and many people say "common" meaning "periodic".

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#26
post #6

I'm surprised that either: 1. Nobody at Waymo thought of this, 2. Somebody did think of it but it wasn't considered important enough to prioritize, or 3. They tried to prep the cars for this and yet they nonetheless failed so badly

Everyone should have understood that driving requires improvisation in the face of uncommon but inevitable bespoke challenges that this generation of AI is not suited for. Either because it's common sense or because so many people have been shouting it for so long.

[dead]

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#27
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how these cars keep getting stalled for half an hour or something. Surely there must be a team of teleoperators ready to jump in at any time?

The power outage probably knocked out the infra those operators needed to control the cars.

True but the comment I replied to mentions a different case where a Waymo got stuck for half an hour at a parade.

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#28

In my experience, humans respond incredibly poorly to traffic lights being out. There's no sense or reason, just people deciding to drive across the intersection when they feel like it's okay. Presumably Waymo will make sure they can handle this situation in the future, but I'm not sure there's a really satisfactory solution. The way you're supposed to handle an intersection with no lights (treat it as a stop sign in…

In Germany most traffic lights have a full set of traffic signs that are in effect in the rare occasion that the light is out.

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#29
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone should have understood that driving requires improvisation in the face of uncommon but inevitable bespoke challenges that this generation of AI is not suited for. Either because it's common sense or because so many people have been shouting it for so long.

I'd say driving only requires not to handle uncommon situation dangerously. And stopping when you can't handle something fits my criteria. Also I'm not sure it's entirely AI's fault. What do you do when you realistically have to break some rules? Like here, I assume you'd have to cut someone off if you don't want to wait forever. Who's gonna build a car that breaks rules sometimes, and what regulator will approve it?

In practice, no one treats it as a four-way stop, which makes it dangerous to treat it as one.

Re: Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

#30

In my experience, humans respond incredibly poorly to traffic lights being out. There's no sense or reason, just people deciding to drive across the intersection when they feel like it's okay. Presumably Waymo will make sure they can handle this situation in the future, but I'm not sure there's a really satisfactory solution. The way you're supposed to handle an intersection with no lights (treat it as a stop sign in…

I thought the traffic went pretty well tonight in San Francisco considering we had this major issue.
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