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Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

mysanantonio.com

61–70 of 220 posts

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#61

I've never understood why everyone acts like this is some bizarre legal quagmire. If I make a robot and it goes and kills someone, nobody sits around navel gazing wondering how they're going to prosecute a robot. If I make a device that pulls the trigger of a gun aimed at someone tied to a chair when I click a button on my cell phone, or something green appears in the camera attached to the device, or time reaches 11…

A few years ago I would have believed this.

But then, I would have also believed that youtube would have been sued into oblivion before it even got established, and that uber and lyft would not have been able to sidestep all the municipal regulations, and that we would have photographic evidence of bigfoot by now.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#62
post #30
post #14

The problem we will encounter with self driving cars is that while they will make less mistakes than humans, they will make different mistakes. Humans will continue to have a hard time accepting this tradeoff. I live in LA where Waymos are now on every street. My experience is that they don’t respect human courtesy, so for example if I need to cross a lane of busy traffic, a human may brake as a courtesy to let me th…

That courtesy is almost always bad practice and is generally unlawful. You must yield right of way to a pedestrian at a legal crossing, but california has codes that prohibit impeding normal traffic flow, including stopping in the street to wave across a pedestrian where there is no such crossing. It's especially dangerous on multi-lane roads because the stopped vehicle can blind the pedestrian to other traffic.

"Courtesy causes confusion; confusion causes crashes"

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#64
post #14

The problem we will encounter with self driving cars is that while they will make less mistakes than humans, they will make different mistakes. Humans will continue to have a hard time accepting this tradeoff. I live in LA where Waymos are now on every street. My experience is that they don’t respect human courtesy, so for example if I need to cross a lane of busy traffic, a human may brake as a courtesy to let me th…

Waymo's are not about to run a person or bicyclist over. Just walk in front of them and they'll stop for you to cross. You can always start livestreaming if you don't believe it, the insurance payout would be amazing . (Subject to the laws of physics, naturally.) Source: Haven't been run over yet by one, and I live in one of their current markets.

Good luck making eye contact with the Waymo to gain confidence that it sees you.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#65

My kneejerk, not thought through notion: why not require an emergency override protocol be builtin to road using robots? No thoughts on how this would work exactly, but it would let emergency workers move robot vehicles out of the way.

How do you propose to build something like that where it’s actually limited to just emergency workers?

This is like the fire keys for elevators. You can find them on eBay.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#67
post #17
post #3

Wild! Who wrote legislation to allow this?

You mean cars being allowed to endanger human lives? Enshrined by law, urban infrastructure and cultural notions of independence for over a century? Why is it just now seen as a problem because robots are driving, instead of the stupid, reckless, poorly trained, often intoxicated humans who have been driving up until now?

Lol no, way to discuss something not mentioned - do you work at one of these reckless companies? I'm talking about self-driving legislation, written by those wanting to test on an unsuspecting public.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#68
post #7

At the risk of sounding ignorant, why didn't the various police cruisers and even the ambulance itself just push the damn thing out of the way? That's what the push bars attached to the front of their vehicles are for.

Because its not a trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#69

This is my town, wow - cant believe someone filmed this whole interaction while there was a shooting a couple of blocks from there... If the ambulance was in a hurry they could have rammed the Waymo, I am sure Google wouldn't have sued for damages. AFAIK when a Waymo detects emergency vehicle lights and sirens, it is designed to pull over and stop, unlock its doors, and roll down its windows. Also: First responders c…

>If the ambulance was in a hurry i believe they were. >they could have rammed the Waymo Not an expert but i think the goal is to get the ambulance and its occupants to a specific location and then make an egress to a nearby medical facility? Also I'm not confident ambulances are designed to execute the pit maneuver. >I am sure Google wouldn't have sued for damages. Oh well if that's the case i guess it's all alright.…

Can't pit a stationary vehicle.

Re: Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting

#70

Everyone is downvoted in the comments 80% are grey? Even the ones that sound perfectly reasonable? Upvoted one and it was still greyed out which makes me think there's more to it, but maybe I am missing something really obvious.

>Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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