Self-Driving Cars in Four California Accidents

LA Times Article

This article discusses accidents involving the newly released self-driving cars being tested in California. It makes me wonder if the DOT or other government agencies will need to designate only certain roadways for this new technology - apparently the self-driving cars were not the cause of any of these accidents. Maybe it's all just us inferior humans, screwing things up and messing up the test drives for these vehicles. Or perhaps the tech. companies are using that claim in order to save face.

Four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars now rolling around California have gotten into accidents since September, when the state began issuing permits for companies to test them on public roads.

The article goes on to say that only 2 of the 4 accidents occurred when the cars were actually operating autonomously though. All 4 accidents occurred when the vehicles were moving less than 10 MPH.

Three involved Lexus SUVs that Google Inc. outfitted with sensors and computing power in its aggressive effort to develop "autonomous driving," a goal the tech giant shares with traditional automakers. The parts supplier Delphi Automotive had the other accident with one of its two test vehicles.

Both Google and Delphi denied that their cars/systems were at fault, but I haven't seen any evidence for who is really at fault:

Since September, any accident must be reported to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency said there have been four, but would not comment about fault or anything else, citing California law that collision reports are confidential.

Five other companies have testing permits. In response to questions from the Associated Press, all said they had no accidents. In all, 48 cars are licensed to test on public roads.

A chief selling point for self-driving cars is safety. Their cameras, radar and laser sensors give them a far more detailed understanding of their surroundings than humans have. Their reaction times also should be faster. Cars could be programmed to adjust if they sense a crash coming — move a few feet, tighten the seat belts, honk the horn or flash the lights in hope of alerting a distracted driver.

It is an interesting time to be alive, as automated machines are slowly being integrated into our society on multiple levels.
What do my ATS friends think about this?

a reply to: FamCore

So the accidents took place at around 10mph? Doesn't sound like very stable technology if it gets in accidents at 10mph. Let alone barreling down the highway at 70mph. My opinion is it shouldn't be on the roadways yet if the technology isn't sound. It's jeopardizing others safety.

Sometimes when driving you have to do the opposite of what seems logical, I wonder how these cars would cope in such a situation?

How about interaction? For example I often let people out from a junction because I know they might be there for a long time otherwise, what would an automated car do if I were to offer to let it out?

tighten the seat belts,

I imagine one day the car will over-tighten the seat belt and asphyxiate the driver. But he will be saved from flying out the windshield.

I will stick to using my damn self to drive a car for the rest of my life. How many times will people need a reminder? When you give up direct control, you have given that control over to another. Another could simply remotely access and veer the car off a cliff if they dont like the things you are saying at the local protest against political corruption?

Kind of like pushing a button and making a plane fall out of the sky, or maybe into a building??

a reply to: VoidHawk

Agree with that..sometimes you have to swerve off the road or maybe speed up really fast when a car is coming on the interstate and you are trying to give it room to get on because you see the other cars behind you wont give the guy much choice. Curious if the car will break the law in the name of safety.

a reply to: FamCore

In cali,there is no telling who was at fault there. An ex moved there and told me,he hadn't been in the city for even 15 minutes when he was hit by an illegal alien.She tried to drive off as she had no license to drive in the US,and he stopped her and got the police. The police officer shrugged and said there was nothing he could do,as these accidents happen all the time. My ex was like,she has no license,no insurance,and she is illegal! Cop just shrugged and walked off. So he told her that since it was her bf's car,her bf could pay for the damage she had done,and he got a baseball bat out of his truck and broke out all the lights on her bf's car.

You can be sitting at a stop light and get nailed there or anywhere to be honest. But in Cali? Accidents happen all the time.

a reply to: FamCore

Good let it happen faster and we can get past this idea of jobs economy career and get back into family, exploring, consciousness, and god.

a reply to: JAY1980

It sounds like it wasn't the technology's "fault", it was other vehicles with people driving them that caused the accidents, which is why in my OP I discussed the idea of having Dept. of Transportation making certain roads "designated" for self-driving cars, where regular vehicles cannot go (since us humans aren't able to interact properly with them)

I wonder what the insurance outcome was for the 4 drivers that "caused" the crashes. did they get a pay off or a f**k off

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

Even in the name of safety, I don't know that they would be allowed to program it to break the law.

But they may have to write a whole new set of laws, just FOR this technology (look at what they do for intellectual property law)

a reply to: FamCore

The radio stations here in Southern Ontario ripped apart self driving cars during the winter months, I remember listening in on an open lines about people bringing up very good points, like:

How will it know when the tires are slipping on black ice?
How can is navigate in deep un-plowed streets?
How would a self driving car deal with the 400 series highways, the busiest in the world?

When there is traffic and it needs to pull over for emergency vehicles?

The list goes on, these cars cannot critically think, maybe on the open freeways it might work, but no residential or in harsh weather, no way.

I'm wondering what will happen when the self-driving car is stuck in a traffic queue that runs just to the top of the hill and a semi can't see the queue and thus can't stop in time so cars have to run off the side of the road down into the ditch or into the median to avoid getting slammed by the suddenly breaking semi?

Or will it just sit in the queue and get rear-ended?

I'm guessing that we're going to have to have separate lanes for self-driving vehicles until everyone and every vehicle is fully transitioned and eventually manual drive will be outlawed because it will make things too random for a self-driving car to adjust to.

What about this ?

freight-liner comes out with self driving truck !

More Info :


www.google.com... i10.41922.41922.0.44340.1.1.0.0.0.0.125.125.0j1.1.0.msedr...0...1c.1.64.serp..0.1.124.WfZlfwFyWWE

My daily driver is 10 years old. Here is a list of all of the components that I have direct and absolute control over, without any "computer intervention":



Let that sink in for a bit.

originally posted by: VoidHawk
Sometimes when driving you have to do the opposite of what seems logical, I wonder how these cars would cope in such a situation?

How about interaction? For example I often let people out from a junction because I know they might be there for a long time otherwise, what would an automated car do if I were to offer to let it out?

They should have used 'fuzzy logic' which had limited success back in the 90s (not in cars though). When conventional logic is based very firmly on 100% yes or 100% no,fuzzy logic introduces the maybe factor.

When ever the subject of self driving cars is mentioned,it makes me shudder with fright and brings back memories of the Airbus crash at Mulhouse with the first of the full fly-by-wire systems.In this case,it was the earlier version where the flight computer had the final say,if it thought the pilot had made a bad choice it would over ride it and there was nothing the pilot could do to get control of the plane back from the computer.

Half the times the accidents are from someone else not paying attention. Defensive driving. Now, a car cannot think and see and evaluate the situation. These cars are not any better than a teen who just got their license.

a reply to: FamCore

It is an interesting time to be alive, as automated machines are slowly being integrated into our society on multiple levels. What do my ATS friends think about this?

In the next few years, we'll all be driving cars that have been hacked or designed to drive-by-wire. There'll be incentives and deterrents to 'encourage' us all to let GPS take us to where we want to go. Freeways, motorways, interstates and major roads will probably have some wi-fi trigger that rolls us on our way as we sit like fish in a bowl.

I can even see the benefits. Rush hour traffic should be a heck of a lot smoother when we can all travel safely at the same speed just inches from the car in front. Speed limits could conceivably become redundant if all vehicles are connected by whatever passes for wi-fi in the future.

Maybe the day will come when the only time a decent car can open the throttle will be on the back roads?

a reply to: JAY1980

Except we don't know who caused the crash, plus how else do you think they'll be able to make the technology sound if it doesn't get any real world testing?

originally posted by: rickymouse
Now, a car cannot think and see and evaluate the situation. These cars are not any better than a teen who just got their license.

The evidence says otherwise. I'd take a machine over a fallible human any day of the week.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Now, a car cannot think and see and evaluate the situation.

A professional race driver has a reaction time of approx 0.4 seconds.

A good street driver has a reaction time of approx 0.7 seconds.

My 10 year old daily's electronic suite...0.07 seconds.

Computers will "see", "evaluate" and "react" long before a human will.