Uber self drive car kills pedestrian

[Jim Jamieson]

Originally Posted by macafee2

if these were stats, it show driverless is safer for pedestrians

macafee2

Not if you take into account the total number of driverless cars against the number with drivers.

As said before it was only a matter of time.
I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to be in a car driven by a computer. So much money has been spent on this and I feel could be better used to further improve fuel economy and safety.

[Dallas]

That poor lady.

It seems that some people are putting blame on the pedestrian as she was not using the crosswalk, and some say the lady was homeless.
Does either of those situations matter, the accident still should not have happened.

Its not yet know how close the pedestrian was to the vehicle when she stepped into the lane, I suppose the Uber's video footage will be key evidence.

There was a man killed back in 2016 when his self-driving Tesla smashed into a truck in Florida, and they reckon they want to replace drivers with robots.

[macafee2]

are robots only as good as the programmer?
I'm sure that in time, they will solve issues where driverless cars are involved in incidents where the car could have/should have avoided the incident. They have come so far with electronics, sensors and radar over the years

macafee2

[topman]

It'd be interesting to see a like for like comparison done. Compare say 500000 miles for human drivers to another 500000 miles from a self drive car.

I wonder what the numbers would show?

[Dallas]

The human race is doomed I tell ya...

The more we surround ourselves with technology, such as develop machines to do things for us and to eliminate human error, the less we will do for ourselves.

Us as humans have already become reliant on technology, where robots are becoming self reliant. Once we design robots to think for themselves, that will be the end of the human race.

[stevestrat]

You've watched Terminator too often Wes.

[Snetty]

Originally Posted by macafee2

are robots only as good as the programmer?
I'm sure that in time, they will solve issues where driverless cars are involved in incidents where the car could have/should have avoided the incident. They have come so far with electronics, sensors and radar over the years

macafee2

Technology has come on leaps and bounds but until the sensors stop seeing an object and see a person and are able to anticipate then its unworkable.
Until things like the railways become completely driverless then its hard to see it happening on the roads.
If (as in this case) there is going to be a driver ready to intervene if there is danger of an accident ( did not work this time) what is the point.

[Dallas]

Originally Posted by stevestrat

You've watched Terminator too often Wes.

I'll be back.

[neilbaker86]

I think you've all missed the point with this.

The car was in autonomous mode, but IT HAD A DRIVER, a driver who was legally responsible for the vehicle.

So why did the DRIVER who had the steering wheel and pedals in front of them which will override the automatic systems fail to prevent the vehicle from colliding with the pedestrian?

Also, I don't have the statistics for road death fatalities in the US, so lets just use some simple numbers; lets say 50 people will be killed each year by autonomous vehicles. But that is still far better than 100 people being killed by manually driven vehicles? It may be a different 50 people that would've survived had they been manually driven, but there are still 100 people alive that would've died had they been manually driven.

Anyone who doesn't understand this simple fact is just a naysayer to new technology.

On your own arguments the car as an entity should be banned, as it is 'dangerous' technology that is causing fatalities. It was 'new' technology at one point! I bet people moaned then about how dangerous they were when compared to their horse and cart.

[Lancpudn]

Originally Posted by Dallas

The human race is doomed I tell ya...

The more we surround ourselves with technology, such as develop machines to do things for us and to eliminate human error, the less we will do for ourselves.

Us as humans have already become reliant on technology, where robots are becoming self reliant. Once we design robots to think for themselves, that will be the end of the human race.

Yeah the human race is still a bit buggy after a few hundred thousand years, it'll take a little while longer to work with this sort of technology.

Sorry to see the death of a person, RIP.

The Tempe police chief has said in an interview the accident is likely not the fault of the AV.

People said she just walked out into the path of the vehicle and was immediately struck by it doing around 40mph.