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Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

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Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#51

Post by bryanlarsen »

Jevon23 wrote: post #36
bryanlarsen wrote: post #17

I suspect this is human error rather than a computer error. Waymo is a supervised system -- from what I've heard while there's little remote driving by humans, there is occasional real-time human labelling and confirmation. So the car likely phoned home to ask "what the heck is this?", and a human clicked on the "overtake" button or something.

>a human clicked on the “overtake” button Ok. So what are the consequences for this human operator and/or Waymo? Human drivers make mistakes all the time, it’s true. But there are consequences for those mistakes. If a human drives into the opposite lane that’s a big problem, especially if they end up causing property damage or bodily injury. Why are the same standards not being applied here?

I've seen plenty of cars drive the wrong way down a one way street. I've done it myself by accident a couple of times. I've never seen any face any consequences other than being honked at. I've seen one pulled over, but they got away with just a warning since they were obviously just confused tourists.

OTOH, I doubt the operator still has a job, and Waymo is going to face significant consequences. Likely formal consequences, but if not, the punishment by the court of public opinion is going to be massive.

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#53

Post by rimunroe »

underdeserver wrote: post #8

No idea what the Waymo car was thinking, but what are these kids riding? Maybe it thought they were on a bike lane? Where I'm from it's illegal to ride like that in a group outside of police-sanctioned events - you're supposed to ride one after the other and keep right.

> Maybe it thought they were on a bike lane? Where I'm from it's illegal to ride like that in a group outside of police-sanctioned events

I’m in Massachusetts where lane splitting is legal in some cases (single lane each direction, posted speed limit below some amount, probably something else). Some other states have similar rules, but in most it’s flatly illegal.

I believe California is an unusual outlier in that lane splitting is allowed with no additional restrictions.

> you're supposed to ride one after the other and keep right.

In many states bicycles are entitled to use the full lane. I often feel safer riding in the center of the lane for a few reasons:

1. The center of the lane is less likely to have small ride-ruining debris like glass, sticks, and nails

2. Cars surprisingly give me more space when passing if I’m not riding off to the side

3. It seems that potholes occur more often to the side of the rode than in the center, or at least get fixed more often when they’re toward the middle of the road

Note: I’m talking about the middle of the lane vs the side, not the middle of the lane vs the shoulder. The shoulder isn’t something you should travel in anyway, even on a bike.

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#54

Post by interloxia »

dageshi wrote: post #39
NewJazz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are they conducting experimental research on public roads in densely populated cities?

Why do we allow human trials of new drugs?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_challenge_study

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#56

Post by infecto »

acimim_ha wrote: post #46
infecto wrote: post #33

Its obviously in the wrong but I do wonder if it somehow misidentified the lane it was supposed to be in as a bike lane?

I sure did. And I sure did even bigger screwups while driving.

Totally. There is no ignoring it is in the wrong but this does not seem that serious to me. It did not plow into other cars or the unicycle folks.

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#57

Post by timeon »

gnfargbl wrote: post #48

Waymo told the Chronicle in a statement that the robotaxi “detected that there may be a risk of a person within that crowd who had fallen down, and decided to carefully initiate a passing maneuver when the opposing lane was clear to move around what could be an obstacle and a safety concern.” “After starting that maneuver, out of an abundance of caution around these vulnerable road users, and to avoid getting too clo…

Waymo car here like some drivers never consider option to slow down. They just have to overtake at all costs.

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#58

Post by fabian2k »

gnfargbl wrote: post #48

Waymo told the Chronicle in a statement that the robotaxi “detected that there may be a risk of a person within that crowd who had fallen down, and decided to carefully initiate a passing maneuver when the opposing lane was clear to move around what could be an obstacle and a safety concern.” “After starting that maneuver, out of an abundance of caution around these vulnerable road users, and to avoid getting too clo…

That statement is PR bullshit, I expected better from Waymo. Nobody fell, so it misidentified the situation. And there was nothing careful about the overtake maneuver here, there was no safe place to end the maneuver in sight.

These kinds of mistakes will very likely happen with self-driving cars, the important part is to address them and improve the cars. I don't expect the cars to be flawless from the start (I do expect some fundamental safety mechanisms to work reliably from the start like the automatic braking before obstacles). Downplaying the issue here is a bad look for Waymo.

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#59

Post by kalleboo »

logifail wrote: post #34
arethuza wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I've seen many human drivers doing equally stupid things.

> I've seen many human drivers doing equally stupid things Just yesterday I got yelled at by an Italian police officer who was directing traffic at a busy junction (I was in a rental car). [Full disclosure: I stopped, wound my window down, we had a polite conversation, everything turned out fine...] The key difference is that if I screw up badly enough when driving, I risk a monetary fine and/or losing my licence and…

> Could the fleet get grounded?

Cruise's permit was suspended after their accident

Re: Waymo illegal overtake into wrong-way driving

#60

Post by acimim_ha »

Faaak wrote: post #43
reisse wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unicycle rider with camera was doing the same - riding the opposite lane behind Waymo

Sure, but this article is about Waymo. We can create a new link about "unicycle rider with a camera driving on the opposite lane", but that's another topic

The topic would not gather nearly as much attention. Why?
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