Arizona halts...self-driving tests; supplier says Uber disabled Volvo safety system before fatality

L A Times ^

[BenLurkin]

Monday, the auto-parts maker that supplied the radar and camera on the Volvo SUV that struck and killed the woman last week said Uber had disabled the standard collision-avoidance technology in the vehicle.

"We don't want people to be confused or think it was a failure of the technology that we supply for Volvo, because that's not the case," Zach Peterson, a spokesman for Aptiv, said by phone. The Volvo XC90's standard advanced driver-assistance system "has nothing to do" with the Uber test vehicle's autonomous driving system, he said.

Aptiv is speaking up for its technology to avoid being tainted by the fatality involving Uber, which may have been following standard practice by disabling other tech as it develops and tests its own autonomous driving system. Experts who saw video of the Uber crash pointed to apparent failures in Uber's sensor system, which failed to stop or slow the car as 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg crossed a street pushing a bicycle.

Police in Tempe, Ariz., and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

Uber didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

[ptsal]

Ooops!
Getting past stupid is so hard.
Can these folks say “VW?”

[Doogle]

$$$$$$$...lawyers are lining up like hungry gulls...

[Luircin]

I’d love a self-driving car.

I just don’t want anyone ELSE to have them.

[Reno89519]

As a lot of us have been saying—not ready for the roads, Uber’s fault. Now we know more to confirm. Maybe this will be enough to keep all driverless cars off roads and not use the public as guinea pigs for their experiments.

[clearcarbon]

[umgud]

I still want to know how these things operate in tunnels and parking garages or anywhere covered that blocks sat and cell.

[Reno89519]

And competitor Google is out claiming its Waymo car would have avoided the accident. Apparently they are also on the road in Tempe. They should not be. Who dies next?

[Reno89519]

Or near someone or a location jamming signals.

[clearcarbon]

Use to be:
Guns don't kill people, people kill people;
and
Cars don't kill people, people kill people.
Well, now cars kill people so guns are now more benign than cars.

[umgud]

I’m not against them but I’m not yet sold on them either.
I’ve got a lot of bugs in my PC and phone. I don’t need them in my car.

[clearcarbon]

"Or near someone or a location jamming signals.",

Or trucker CB with a kicker? "Breaker 1-9" (crash!).

[KC_for_Freedom]

This case stinks and the engineering staff owe the public an explanation as to how the sensors operate, what they saw, and what software was tasked with the decision making as far as avoidance and brake. So far I would believe anything, but I am afraid what we will learn will be a sorry case of failure to test in realistic situations and even running with some aspects of the system disabled.

I could not believe that they said the lidar would have detected but was not tied into the decision to apply the brakes. What are they doing running a vehicle with this attitude and what was the human doing while engineers were making “improvements” to software. This is where the human should have been highly alert and have have full command of the vehicle override systems.

All I can say is this does not look good.

[Reno89519]

Yes, so lets get those SJW out to ban killer driverless cars and leave guns alone.

[Oscar in Batangas]

Some deceased pedestrian’s family will soon be saying,
“All of your Uber stocks are belonging to us”

[who_would_fardels_bear]

If the cars are designed properly then they will depend on a map and pics stored locally in the car plus the best estimate of their location using their last GPS coordinate and the record of the speed and direction of travel. The map will be updated on a regular basis via satellite, but the car won't depend on it.

I believe they should be able to record the speed of the vehicle very accurately. However, I wonder about the direction. If they have an internal compass that includes magnetic declination, then great. Otherwise they will need to depend on the pics, radar, and lidar to finetune their location within the roadway.

[Reno89519]

It is reckless. No wonder Uber said after the accident they anticipated criminal charges. Their careless development and disregard of the public gives technology a bad name. Bad enough we have software released on our computers and all with bugs, but that is not life threatening. To take the same quality approach to cars where people’s lives are at risk is unconsciouseable.

[Telepathic Intruder]

[Reno89519]

Next test for Uber, IF THEY GET A NEXT TEST. Put it in a neighborhood of its families and kids—schools, parks, bikepaths, crosswalks, long blocks with informal crosswalks etc. Let them direct their kids to walk their bikes across the street. Let them test there first.

[piytar]

Here is the video of the accident: https://youtu.be/8IqpUK5teGM Warning: It’s disturbing. Will just say no human driver could have avoided this tragedy. Happened way too fast.