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Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

sfgate.com

531–540 of 750 posts

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a better solution for that: Public transportation.

Even public transportation would benefit greatly from reliable self-driving. Shortage of bus/tram/train drivers is a major bottleneck all across Europe, especially in places where they just can't offer competing wages and lose their drivers to the richest cities of the EU. Rural Bulgaria will never be able to pay their drivers as much as Vienna or Munich can. Not even third of that, the economic gap is just too big.…

It's definitely becoming more common, I'm pretty sure some of the Paris Metro is now driverless (or remote driver).

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#532
post #217
post #11

So the scenario (as described by waymo, surely with some spin): "Driving through a 4 way intersection, while a large truck is also going through the intersection. As you go through, a biker quickly passes behind the truck with minimal time to react once in sightlines." A human driver would take significantly longer to react, and could be deadly. Waymo managed to hit the breaks before the collision, potentially leadin…

Waymo probably has cameras from every angle here, so it seems kind of odd that we have to rely on a textual description.

Privacy concerns mean that Waymo has a strong reason not to release video to us, the general public.

My guess is the most likely two routes you get video is either there's a lawsuit and so it's evidence or a government agency insists on having video and that gets either deliberately released or leaked to excited local TV news. In both those cases Waymo can say they had no choice, even if it's good for them.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a better solution for that: Public transportation.

There is no public transportation that can bring me home after saying goodbye to friends at 1 AM in a big city and having to drive one hour to my home in a little town. There is no such public transportation even during the day unless I want to spend 2 to 3 hours on a mix of metro, train and bus. And I don't have many choices about the time to leave. You could say that it's flawed to live in the countryside and/or ha…

There isn’t in the US, dominated by urban design built for cars, but in many societies it’s entirely possible to have drinks until late and then safely get home via transit.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#534
post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can drive to work in twelve minutes. If I humor the premise of a bus that stops in front of my home and also my workplace, which is unlikely to ever exist no matter how much money is thrown at public transit, it would still take several times longer than driving myself because there are numerous other homes and businesses between which the bus would stop at. Using a bus would mean I have to wake up earlier, and the…

That escalated quickly.

Indeed, the lizard people are already marching across the flat earth I guess. They'll be here for us soon.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#535
post #394

Everybody here is discussing the car and the cyclist, but I don't see anybody considering the possibility that the intersection design is unsafe. That there is a stop sign is a pretty bad signal in itself, Not Just Bikes made a video explaining this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42oQN7fy_eM

Self driving cars are a misguided attempt to make driving safer when the underlying issue isn't necessarily the driver.

Self-driving cars are not an attempt to make driving safer, they are attempts to create commercially viable self-driving vehicles.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#536
While there is a level of clarity missing in the description, it sure sounds like the bicycle was turning and is entirely their fault. Will hold judgement until there is a full write up. Knowing how most cyclists believe they have the ultimate write of way in SF I am inclined to believe they would blindly turn into the path of traffic.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#537
post #457

Uhh.... thinking ahead of risks, and especially hidden cyclists and pedestrians is something that is taught in basic drivers ed here in Sweden. How can this not be the fault of the car? It should have realized that, yes, I am completely blind regarding whoever comes out from behind the truck, I should slow down. I guess there are some qualifications here. If there was a severely low probability of a cyclist there, an…

How? It’s unclear but reads to me that the cyclist trailed the truck and made a blind turn. Same as if a pedestrian just jumps out in front of you.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#538
post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha yeah that is accurate. The right language is situational though haha. People are generally overconfident in their ability to mathematically describe things. There's a clique "all models are wrong" and like all cliques it is something everyone can repeat but not internalize lol

you should not forget the second part: all models are wrong, some are useful

Yes, but unfortunately the second part is usually employed by people who want to put under the rug the fact that their model is dubious.

All models are wrong, only some of them are useful, and only when handled with care.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#539
post #394

Everybody here is discussing the car and the cyclist, but I don't see anybody considering the possibility that the intersection design is unsafe. That there is a stop sign is a pretty bad signal in itself, Not Just Bikes made a video explaining this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42oQN7fy_eM

Self driving cars are a misguided attempt to make driving safer when the underlying issue isn't necessarily the driver.

Most crashes are caused by the driver.

Re: Cyclist hit by driverless Waymo car in San Francisco, police say

#540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the end goal of self driving cars is simply to let people do something else than drive. Safety is only a condition for this to happen.

There is a better solution for that: Public transportation.

Oh naff off.
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