Posted on 03/20/2018 10:51:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
John covered this story last night, but the death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving Uber vehicle in Arizona should have ramifications for the entire idea of autonomous vehicles. (Something I’ve been concerned about for a couple of years now.) After covering the initial reports from the accident, John concluded with the following observations and questions.
There will be an investigation of this accident as well, but my first thought is to wonder why the human ‘backup driver’ didn’t stop the car and prevent this. Reliable self-driving cars and trucks may still be a couple years away but it’s worth pointing out that human drivers are responsible for tens of thousands of fatal accidents on the roads every year. In 2016, there were an estimated 40,200 fatal crashes. Ultimately, the question is whether the record of driverless cars turns out to be better or worse than the humans who would otherwise be at the wheel.
Before addressing those points, it’s worth noting that new information has been provided by authorities investigating the accident. While it will take a while to sort this all out, initial findings indicate that the car probably wasn’t at fault in this case and the test monitor probably wouldn’t have been able to prevent the accident even if they’d been in complete control. (Fortune)
“The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them,” Moir said. “His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision.”
According to the Chronicle, the preliminary investigation found the Uber car was driving at 38 mph in a 35 mph zone and did not attempt to brake. Herzberg is said to have abruptly walked from a center median into a lane with traffic. Police believe she may have been homeless.
Since there’s dashcam video of the entire incident, the police should be able to sort this out without too many questions going unanswered. Going by their description, the possibly homeless and confused woman was pushing a bicycle in a median strip when she suddenly veered out into traffic directly in front of the Uber vehicle which was going nearly 40 mph. Assuming the next lane of traffic was blocked by another vehicle, the car would have had no other option than to possibly try to drive up onto the median. (It looks like it would have been physically impossible to stop the vehicle in that short span.) But the car’s programming clearly wasn’t anticipating a person diving out in front of it and a human being likely couldn’t crank the wheel over in a split second to avoid her either.
So Uber is off the hook and testing of autonomous vehicles can resume presently, right? I honestly hope not. The woman’s death is a tragedy, but this accident should also give us pause to ask whether any autonomous system will ever be able to replace a human being for such tasks. The woman appears to have done something completely unexpected which the navigation software had no reason to anticipate, but the fact is that irrational, unexpected things do happen in the real world all the time. And it’s in those razor-thin moments of doubt that a human being will always best a machine.
NASA regularly argues that manned space exploration will always be superior to drones and robots because human beings are more adaptable. We simply see the complexity of the world around us in a way that no set of logical rules coded into the most complex software will ever match. Humans are also able to imagine things in a way that computers can’t, including the most unexpected. Take the idea of color for example. A computer can analyze a video image and assign a value to a given color. But there’s a limit to the number of colors it can recognize and it has to force the object into one of those pigeonholes, even if they number in the thousands. In reality, there are an infinite number of colors, with each subtle shift in light frequency blending from one to the next. A system built on ones and zeros will never grasp that.
Returning to the auto accident scenario, the car was unable to anticipate a possibly homeless and confused woman suddenly lurching out in front of it. The car may have identified her as a pedestrian, but that’s not what pedestrians are “supposed to do.” But a human driver, under other circumstances, may have noticed things about her such as disheveled clothes or an unsteady rhythm to her gait. Seeing that, a human could have slowed down in advance, wondering if she was about to do something crazy. Do you honestly believe that an autonomous car is going to be capable of that sort of thought process? And none of this even begins to address the potential problems with hacking and terrorism.
Cars need drivers for precisely this reason. John was right to point out that we’re far from perfect and humans cause many, many accidents each year. With that in mind, some technology could likely improve our record. Perhaps some of those collision detection systems which are able to slam on the brakes when they locate an object we’re about to strike could be added to most vehicles. Sensors which detect a sleepy driver nodding off and sound an alarm to fully wake them might save many lives. But we should still keep a human being at the wheel as the primary operator. Autonomous driving software isn’t going to match the human mind.
Self-driving Uber car hits and kills cyclist as she crosses road
A self-driving Uber car struck and killed a bicyclist after she jaywalked across a road.
indeed. personal injury lawyers are going to have a field day with self-driving cars,
...
If they do it will be because so many people are prejudiced against autonomous cars.
That’s a stupid and uninformed comment.
>>But the car’s programming clearly wasn’t anticipating a person diving out in front of it and a human being likely couldn’t crank the wheel over in a split second to avoid her either.
Was she invisible in that median? Humans can see non-threats and still categorize them as a possible threat and take action to avoid even though there is no action to avoid. A person pushing a bicycle in a median is different from a person pushing one on a sidewalk becuase one is expected and one is odd. The human brain has a level of discernment that a computer can not duplicate.
I don’t believe the first time this happened.
It is well-known that humans are very good at carrying out complex tasks but are extremely poor at monitoring automatic systems for rare unfortunate events. They get bored to death and soon start to daydream and/or get distracted.
“While it will take a while to sort this all out, initial findings indicate that the car probably wasn’t at fault in this case and the test monitor probably wouldn’t have been able to prevent the accident even if they’d been in complete control. (Fortune)”
Of course........that way we all can rest assured that the autonomous vehicles will ultimately remove all Human piloted cars from the road. Thus, another freedom gets removed by the Liberal tech companies.
No way the software is flawed.......they’ve spent 6 years developing it, and too many elites have invested in this being the next “Big Thing” !
Spin this story as fast as possible..........just remember, the old adage.......If you hit someone, anyone, you don’t have control of your vehicle. Now, wait, ....... this is not the case with computer software. Get those faulty Human drivers off the road/sarc!
Neither am I. But there was a person in the driver’s seat, maybe if he had reacted, he could have stopped the car? I don’t know
I just heard Rushbo say that the Cop said there was nothing anyone could have done even the guy in the car couldn’t have reacted in time as she darted out in front of the Car. Not the cars fault
During the same time, 10 pedestrians were killed by human driven cars in Phoenix.
But, we get all out of sorts because of 1 pedestrian death by a self-driving car.
I am looking forward to more self-driving cars. I think they will improve road safety by leaps and bounds.
There is no way to prevent the human factor.
According to the reports and evidence, she came darting out of the shadows at a point in the road other than an intersection.
If there had been a driver at the wheel and brakes she would have been just as dead.
It was apparently dark so the lights in the vehicle would have been on.
Mom always said to look both ways, especially at night, and at night look both ways again before walking out into traffic. The vehicle might have been on auto-pilot but evidently so was she.
How so?
I hate driving myself. But I hate the idea of driverless vehicles even more. I don’t deny the human factor in driving accidents. But regardless of how dehumanizing modern technology is,the human factor cannot be totally eliminated whether there’s a human driving or not. Imperfect humans conceive and make these cars. Putting driverless cars on the market and in the road is just asking for more trouble than we already have.
Homeless, was she? How do we know this wasn’t vehicular suicide? Police-assisted suicides are fairly common. I’ve been convinced that young Nickolas Whoozit in Parkland, FL intended for an LEO to waste him, but the coward “Resource Officer” on duty ran and hid.
Sounded to me like he was not watching what was going on as he said he only noticed after hearing the impact. Perhaps he was taking a cat nap?
Maybe they can call it the Ford Pintonium AlGorhythm. This will eliminate excess people to cut down on Global Warming while monetizing that it is cheaper to establish blame (fault) ahead of time instead of fixing the problem. Hopefully they cover their “rear ends” so that it doesn’t blow up in their faces.
Communism has the highest fatality rate of all and that's really what is behind the driverless car obsession. The left sees a chance to control the masses primary mode of transportation. It's as important as health care. Once the commies control your car they will control your life. Everywhere you go and how long you spend there will be recorded as well as limiting when and where you can go anywhere.
There is no such thing as a driverless car. Someone will always be driving. It just won't be you! Does that make you feel free?
Are you looking forward to leftist kooks controlling your life? Because that is exactly what you are going to get.
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