Uber stops all self-driving car tests after fatal accident

originally posted by: Blue Shift
I'm just explaining how it's going to be....

Nice to know our future is being mapped out with no input from us. And you claim they are all doing it for my own good? Typical big government answer--they know better than us, and thus have the right to run our lives.

originally posted by: Blue Shift...it improves your odds of survival.

Survive what? Life? No one survives in the end. In the meantime, make mine Freedom!

yep, well driverless cars are not inherently safe so get me outta here somebody.....what a world....

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: buddha
the space shuttle used 5 computers as a redundancy.
so why dont they use 3 computers.

The flight controller on the Space Shuttle had around 1% of the computing power of an XBox 360.

Um! I did not mean use the same computers!!!!
can we use your Xbow 360?

originally posted by: WarPig1939
I won't ever buy a self driving car. It kind of defeats the purpose of having your own car in the first place. Not to mention I don't trust another person's programming to keep me alive during transit from point a to point b. There isn't even a feature for a manual override in case the self driving feature does experience problems..

Maybe my kids or grand kids will have one when this technology is streamlined and it is proven effective. Not me, never

The simple solution then is to program your own.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: CriticalStinker

Personally, I think self driving cars are an insult to human intelligence. I know there are a lot of idiots on the road but they are a minority and when they screw up, they get punished. I know the punishments are sometimes too light for the offence but that's a different discussion.

How do you punish a robot?

Personally, I think this post is an insult to human intelligence. Speed limits are in place because humans react slow. With fully autonomous vehicles, we can see speeds of 300 mph, without having to waste weight on safety features, gas mileage will skyrocket, accidents will drop to 0, and throughput on roads will dramatically increase. Humans are too limited to do any of that right now.

originally posted by: PraetorianAZ
My sister in law works for Waymo and their self-driving car program and she says this tech is still scaring the drivers every day.

But the drivers are supposed to me paying attention at all times ready to step in if need be.

I know this is UBER we are dealing with and not Waymo but they had to of had the same rules in place. Was the human not watching the road?

Update on that,

"Elvia Diaz: Was Rafaela Vasquez's criminal background a factor in Uber's self-driving vehicle hitting and killing a woman in Tempe?"

What does Vasquez’s prior conviction has to do with the incident, especially since police said the van was an autonomous mode when it hit the woman?

We don’t know yet, though Tempe police did say that impairment did not initially appear to be a factor of either the Uber operator or the woman killed.The investigation is underway.

But that hasn’t stopped us, the media and the public, from going berserk over Vasquez's criminal background and her employers for giving her a chance in the first place.

Source

That's media focus now, as the investigation is under way.

a reply to: dreamingawake

oh dear - i am still waiting till the investigators notes and photos get release

because - [ just my opinion ] :

what the victim was doing in the 30 seconds prior to the RTC - is more important than the UBER supervisors conviction for armed robbery

now if the UBER employee had ha hstory of convictions for speeding , running red lights , drink driving , " driving without due care and attention" [a UK offence- but i is cetrtain theres a comparable US one ] etc etc etc

then i would question the UBER supervisors sutibility for the job more closely

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: CriticalStinker


I agree, they need to do a lot more testing, and how about test on some UBER executives or their families walking on a crosswalk!

how does that saying go? eye for an eye makes us blind? you think they programmed the car to kill? it was determined the car was not at fault.

a reply to: JourneymanWelder

Here, well so far at least, it has been treated along the lines of 'power gives way to sail' IE if a vehicle hits a pedestrian there's no way the pedestrian will be found to be at fault so the driver of the vehicle is blamed for not making allowance for the erratic actions of an unpredictable pedestrian.

We already have lower speed limits in populated areas (50km/hr) and even lower (40km/hr) in shopping centres & school districts at times when kids are arriving & leaving in order to make any pedestrian+vehicle incident more survivable for the pedestrian.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker

Uber is putting all of its self-driving vehicle tests on hold after one of its cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona Sunday evening. According to ABC affiliate KNXV, the car had a human operator behind the wheel but was in autonomous mode. A woman walking on a crosswalk was struck by the car and she later died in the hospital due to the injuries she sustained. Uber says that it is working with the the local authorities.

While this isn't the first fatal accident involving a self-driving vehicle, it does appear to be the first resulting in the death of a pedestrian. "Our hearts go out to the victim's family," Uber tweeted today.

Uber stops all self-driving car tests after fatal accident

Well, many worried of something like this happening with self driving cars. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise. This should at least slow the progress for self driving cars becoming a normal thing.

God forbid they be on our roads across the country and get hacked causing a lot more damage.

Anyone thinking self-driving cars is a good idea should try to deploy them over here, during winter.

It's another example of a solution looking for a problem. Just because we can make something, doesn't make it a good idea.

How about teaching people how to drive properly - actually focus on what they are doing in a car?

originally posted by: Uberdoubter
How about teaching people how to drive properly - actually focus on what they are doing in a car?

We've tried that since cars were first created, it hasn't eliminated accidents.

I don't really like the idea of self-driving cars, however, the fact the car was driving itself is not the issue here.
I watched the video back and any driver could have been caught out by the total moron crossing the road in the dark in an area that is simply not for crossing.