As for the headline, all I will say is that this $1.3 trillion omnibus shows the republicans have failed to protect this nation, and we will crash. Hard.
Now back to the uber...
Had I been driving down this dark road when this poor lady suddenly appeared in my headlights while walking her bicycle left-to-right across the road, I believe she would be alive today. Maybe there wouldn't have been time to break completely, but jerking the wheel to the right would likely have been enough to avoid hitting her. I know for a FACT that I wouldn't have been texting while driving, since I don't own a phone.
I'm not sure what the human back-up driver was doing, but the dash cam shows this individual gazing down and distracted by something. Their navel maybe? I don't know, but they never look at the road for the several seconds of the video. Nothing bothers me more than when I am watching a show on television and the scene involves a driver and passenger(s) talking while driving. The actors never seem to look at the road, and I yell out loud sometimes for them to, "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" or "WATCH THE ROAD, YOU IDIOT!" My wife will attest to that, as she calms me down by gently reminding me that the actors are not really driving the stationary fake car in front of a studio blue screen. And we miss the dialog from the scene completely, so I hope that wasn't important.
But can't blame the person. They had been conditioned to believe they were a passenger so they acted like it. I may not be the best passenger while my wife is driving, but I don't watch the road 100% of the time. Maybe 99.9%, and I constantly criticize and stomp on a non-existent brake on the passenger floor board. My wife loves it when I drive...
In conclusion, I will never trust a driver-less car. They may be safer than people. Logically I could be convinced of that, especially since I lost a brother to a drunk driver. However, I always drive defensively and assuming every other car on the road is manned by an idiot who is either drunk or texting or will otherwise do the wrong thing. Once the road is filled with (almost) flawless self-driving cars - we will let our guards down and gaze at our own navels. Once that happens, a smudge of dirt on the outside proximity camera may be our doom.
The only self driving cars I like are the old Matchbox and Hotwheels toy cars from my youth.
The Hot Wheels Court is now in session.
Despite a strong defense by the Lincoln Lawyer, the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge threw the manual book at the autonomous Uber, and the Volvo XC90 SUV has been sentenced to drive the Green Mile.
I agree your conclusion. Why did the car not pick the bicycle up at least on radar, hit the brakes and - as you say - swerve to the right or left. Very disappointing for self-driving car tech at this stage of the game. Visually we don't see the girl for long, but the forward looking radar and lidar/lider? should have easily picked her up and responded.
ReplyDeleteThat said, self-drivin cars could do much better than many people on the road in Cincinnati, and personally, If a person has 2 accidents in a year (or whatever it boils down to), they should be forced to travel in a self-driver. Anyone who gets a DUI should be restricted to self drivers.
Kid, The car failed to do what it apparently had been programmed to do. I'd be interested to know why and maybe the answer is some kind of backup. I wonder whether the video actually displays what our eyesight would pick up, and whether we might notice a shadow winking out lights in the distance as she walked her bike across the road. Certainly, that backup human wasn't going to see anything while looking at his (her?) shoelaces.
ReplyDeleteYour last suggestion is intriguing. DUIs and hazardous drivers restricted to autonomous cars. Who pays the $50,000 or so for the car?
They must pay for the car or not drive. Maybe they'll start looking at the road instead of the cellphone.
ReplyDeleteCould the lighting in video have been adjusted? Heck Yea ! Good point.