5 ms·

Las Vegas' self-driving bus crashes in first hour of service

19 points by zadeh 9y ago

hourislate 9y ago
The bus stopped like it was suppose to. The tractor trailer kept backing up and grazed it. Could have been prevented if the at fault driver of the tractor trailer was paying attention or perhaps the Rig was self driving. Important lesson, software has to take into account shitty drivers and try to avoid them in every possible situation. Was hardly a crash....
- acomjean 9y ago
  My question is did the shuttle honk before it was hit?
- parenthephobia 9y ago
  > The tractor trailer kept backing up What would a human bus driver have done in that situation? It isn't enough to make an automated vehicle that meets the minimal legal requirements for interacting with other road users. Real drivers have to deal with the fact that other drivers often don't drive lawfully, or rationally: automated drivers have to do the same.
keeptrying 9y ago
Its also possible that the trailer backing up would have expected the bus to back up as thats what would have been expected from a human driven bus. There is so much complexity that needs to be modeled that the fact that these cars need to mimic humans in all conditions gets forgotten sometimes.
- sandworm101 9y ago
  There is also little work in how these autodrives interact with other autodrives running different soft/hardware where electronic communication isnt possible. There is a huge amount of non-verbal communication between human drivers that must be somehow replicated once there really is no human on either side of the interaction.
  - bowlich 9y ago
    This story makes me think of the colloquialism in the northern plains states where if two drivers come to an all-way stop on some dusty dirt road right-of-way is determined by a nod of the head or wave of the hand. Legally, I don't think there's a rule on the books for offering right-of-way via body language. If you misinterpret them and they drive out and hit you, then you would be at fault. Yet, growing up it seemed like an an unwritten rule that, at an otherwise empty rural intersection, if you have right of way, you should offer it up as a kind of generosity to the other driver. It's a cultural norm that I would dearly miss and would definitely vary from state-to-state and even from urban-to-rural driving inside the same state.
    - sandworm101 9y ago
      >> I don't think there's a rule on the books for offering right-of-way via body language. Except for signalling. Hand signals are still permitted, with many jurisdictions still teaching them. Motorcyclists use very casual hand signals, in combination with eye contact. These convey more intention than a sterile blinking light.
jenkstom 9y ago
Lesson learned... add a horn.
forthefuture 9y ago
Here's the other thread that is still on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314
fnwx17 9y ago
I know marketing and website traffic is important, but: > title: "bus crashes" > literally first sentence of the article: "getting into a minor collision" Clickbait aside, here's the concerning part: "It's designed to stop.. and yield to the moving object..." So basically it wasn't designed to avoid or back up, it was just designed to give way, which confused it when the trailer continued backing it up
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  It wasn't confused, it was just stopped - preventing worse damage to the occupants and itself. The truck driver was in error and will have to pay for damages.
bmcusick 9y ago
>Las Vegas' self-driving bus IS HIT BY A HUMAN DRIVER THAT WASN'T LOOKING WHERE HE WAS GOING in first hour of service ftfy
liberte82 9y ago
On its maiden voyage. Hopefully they didn't boast about it being Uncrashable?
justboxing 9y ago
Active Discussion => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314

19 points by zadeh 9y ago

The bus stopped like it was suppose to. The tractor trailer kept backing up and grazed it. Could have been prevented if the at fault driver of the tractor trailer was paying attention or perhaps the Rig was self driving. Important lesson, software has to take into account shitty drivers and try to avoid them in every possible situation. Was hardly a crash....

acomjean 9y ago
My question is did the shuttle honk before it was hit?
parenthephobia 9y ago
> The tractor trailer kept backing up What would a human bus driver have done in that situation? It isn't enough to make an automated vehicle that meets the minimal legal requirements for interacting with other road users. Real drivers have to deal with the fact that other drivers often don't drive lawfully, or rationally: automated drivers have to do the same.

keeptrying 9y ago

Its also possible that the trailer backing up would have expected the bus to back up as thats what would have been expected from a human driven bus. There is so much complexity that needs to be modeled that the fact that these cars need to mimic humans in all conditions gets forgotten sometimes.

sandworm101 9y ago
There is also little work in how these autodrives interact with other autodrives running different soft/hardware where electronic communication isnt possible. There is a huge amount of non-verbal communication between human drivers that must be somehow replicated once there really is no human on either side of the interaction.
- bowlich 9y ago
  This story makes me think of the colloquialism in the northern plains states where if two drivers come to an all-way stop on some dusty dirt road right-of-way is determined by a nod of the head or wave of the hand. Legally, I don't think there's a rule on the books for offering right-of-way via body language. If you misinterpret them and they drive out and hit you, then you would be at fault. Yet, growing up it seemed like an an unwritten rule that, at an otherwise empty rural intersection, if you have right of way, you should offer it up as a kind of generosity to the other driver. It's a cultural norm that I would dearly miss and would definitely vary from state-to-state and even from urban-to-rural driving inside the same state.
  - sandworm101 9y ago
    >> I don't think there's a rule on the books for offering right-of-way via body language. Except for signalling. Hand signals are still permitted, with many jurisdictions still teaching them. Motorcyclists use very casual hand signals, in combination with eye contact. These convey more intention than a sterile blinking light.

jenkstom 9y ago

Lesson learned... add a horn.

forthefuture 9y ago

Here's the other thread that is still on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314

fnwx17 9y ago

I know marketing and website traffic is important, but: > title: "bus crashes" > literally first sentence of the article: "getting into a minor collision" Clickbait aside, here's the concerning part: "It's designed to stop.. and yield to the moving object..." So basically it wasn't designed to avoid or back up, it was just designed to give way, which confused it when the trailer continued backing it up

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
It wasn't confused, it was just stopped - preventing worse damage to the occupants and itself. The truck driver was in error and will have to pay for damages.

bmcusick 9y ago

>Las Vegas' self-driving bus IS HIT BY A HUMAN DRIVER THAT WASN'T LOOKING WHERE HE WAS GOING in first hour of service ftfy

liberte82 9y ago

On its maiden voyage. Hopefully they didn't boast about it being Uncrashable?

justboxing 9y ago

Active Discussion => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15661314