Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
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Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
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Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#2Less anybody think "this is no big deal", let me assure you as a former firefighter, cars driving over fire hoses is a MAJOR deal. Whether the car is driven by a human or AI. And sadly, humans do this all too often anyway.
FWIW, the reason(s) this is bad - if not obvious - include:
- The hose can (and does) get snagged on the car's under-carriage, which can rip it away from a hydrant, or engine, or yank an attack line right out of the hands of the crew manning it.
- Hoses snagged by cars can, as they're being unexpectedly pulled somewhere they were never expected to be, catch firefighters in the legs and cause them to fall. I'm aware of at least one case where a firefighter suffered a pretty severe head injury in one of these scenarios.
- Even if the hose isn't snagged, damage from the vehicle driving over the hose can cause the hose to rupture. Hopefully I don't have to say any more about why that would be a Bad Thing.
- Even if the hose isn't snagged, or doesn't burst at the moment the vehicle runs over it, the damage from this kind of thing is cumulative with all the other damage fire hoses suffer, which can lead to the need to replace it prematurely. And let me assure you, this stuff is not cheap.
- Probably more that I'm forgetting right now.
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#3So what is the solution? Let emergency services have a remote control STOP button? But it would have many implications for passengers too
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#4So what is the solution? Let emergency services have a remote control STOP button? But it would have many implications for passengers too
Escalators have big red “Emergency Stop” buttons anyone can press when things go wrong. Why not one for autonomous vehicles, too?
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#5Aren't they supposed to respond to gestures? What do they do if someone is directing traffic? And I guess the question if they do respond to traffic directing gestures: how do they avoid obvious pranks from drunk people?
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#6So what is the solution? Let emergency services have a remote control STOP button? But it would have many implications for passengers too
Sounds like a good question to ask Cruise and Waymo--it's their responsibility to do something about the issue.
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#7So what is the solution? Let emergency services have a remote control STOP button? But it would have many implications for passengers too
Escalators have big red “Emergency Stop” buttons anyone can press when things go wrong. Why not one for autonomous vehicles, too?
Carjackings and other crimes where people could press the button in a bad part of town and pull the riders out.
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#8Aren't they supposed to respond to gestures? What do they do if someone is directing traffic? And I guess the question if they do respond to traffic directing gestures: how do they avoid obvious pranks from drunk people?
Throw on a reflective vest & you'll have no problem pranking human drivers with your traffic signals
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#9So what is the solution? Let emergency services have a remote control STOP button? But it would have many implications for passengers too
[deleted]
Re: Firefighters forced to smash window of driverless Cruise taxi to stop it
#10So what is the solution? Let emergency services have a remote control STOP button? But it would have many implications for passengers too
Escalators have big red “Emergency Stop” buttons anyone can press when things go wrong. Why not one for autonomous vehicles, too?
Because it would take about 5 minutes for people to figure out how to use that for nefarious purposes.