One has to wonder how things like this (Uber car apparently doesn't even see or react at all to pedestrian crossing the road at night, per the video evidence) can still happen, with all the testing going on.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... sh-arizonaVideo of the first self-driving car crash that killed a pedestrian suggests a “catastrophic failure” by Uber’s technology, according to experts in the field, who said the footage showed the autonomous system erring on one of its most basic functions.
Days after a self-driving Uber SUV struck a 49-year-old pedestrian while she was crossing the street with her bicycle in Tempe, Arizona, footage released by police revealed that the vehicle was moving in autonomous mode and did not appear to slow down or detect the woman even though she was visible in front of the car prior to the collision. Multiple experts have raised questions about Uber’s Lidar technology, which is the system of lasers that the autonomous cars uses to “see” the world around them.
“This is exactly the type of situation that Lidar and radar are supposed to pick up,” said David King, an Arizona State University professor and transportation planning expert. “This is a catastrophic failure that happened with Uber’s technology.”
Maybe the accident couldn't have been avoided by an alert human driver, as many commenters on various stories showing the video contend. However, I KNOW I have personally avoided a number of accidents in my city involving multiple turn lanes where I had to react damn fast.
Common (but not universal) factors were:
1). Poor visibility for lanes/markings via rain, wet streets, or both, at night.
2). Such lanes being relatively new (within a couple of years) in my city.
I'm sure I would have been in at least three collisions where another car (or Semi-truck in one case) entered my lane in the middle of the turn, if I hadn't reacted MUCH more quickly than the interval in the video from when the person becomes visible to where the crash is imminent.
So the issue I have is not whether the accident could/should have been completely avoided, but that NO action was taken by the car at all, indicating complete lack of awareness of the danger. (I might well have hit this lady if I wasn't quite sure I could safely jerk the wheel to try to veer around her (i.e. cars possibly in blind spots, etc), but I can't imagine I wouldn't even have touched the brake if I were paying attention).
This is with a pedestrian entering the road and crossing an entire lane for several seconds before the car got close. A human could only see for a couple of seconds, but Lidar, etc. should have been able to see (and slowed way down via prudent cautiousness) for perhaps 7 seconds ahead of time.
This reminds me of Teslas crashing into big red firetrucks partially in a lane, or into big orange street cleaners partially in a lane, or an entire semi-truck crossing straddling the entire road. There were always excuses. This time there's no intervening cars, glare, smog, etc. to blame. No apparent bad weather to blame.
Yes, the pedestrian was stupid and was at fault. But until self-driving technology routinely proves that it just doesn't completely fail to even notice pedestrian, bicycle and all completely, I don't want them barreling down the road. I think it's time a lot more serious and thoughtful and standardized regulations are implemented.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.