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This is such a blatant attempt to manipulate public opinion before the actual data appears. Even if Uber's software is ridiculously using visible light for its

This is such a blatant attempt to manipulate public opinion before the actual data appears. Even if Uber's software is ridiculously using visible light for its decision-making, it should definitely be taking into account what it doesn't know. A system like this should not be guessing. There is a giant swath of black in the video; the camera doesn't know what's there. So, the car should be moving so it has a short enough stopping distance to avoid a collision. (Or at least flash the high beams, but that would be pointless, because obviously it isn't actually using this camera. Uber may be run by reckless psychopaths, but their engineers aren't stupid).

jaccarmac 9y ago
Some of the comments in this thread are ridiculous, and your comment throws them into sharp relief. Even if the video is a perfectly faithful reproduction of the scene and the dark parts are that dark, why in the world would the software assume a space it has next to no information about is safe to drive into at the current speed?
- tedmiston 9y ago
  > a space it has next to no information about The car is equipped with more than just an RGB camera sensor wise, such as the Velodyne LiDAR, so it does have information about the scene despite being pitch black to the naked eye. http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-custom-lidar-tech-not-ready-google-waymo-lawsuit-2017-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-custom-lidar-tech-not-re... http://velodynelidar.com/hdl-64e.html http://velodynelidar.com/hdl-64e.html https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/11/ford-lidar-autonomous-car/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/11/ford-lidar-autonomous-car/
  - jaccarmac 9y ago
    > even if That's why I specified. In any case thanks for clarifying.
    - tedmiston 9y ago
      Yeah, my point is that the RGB video could be a perfectly faithful reproduction of the scene* and also the software could have reached decision from multi-sensor data that hasn't yet been released (i.e., a dark spot in some video frames from one of the RGB cameras doesn't imply that the autonomous system lacked info). *Though we can assume that this dashcam footage is lower quality / resolution / less precise than what the sensors had access to.
URSpider94 9y ago
The police department released the video, not Uber.
- dylan-m 9y ago
  Mm, fair enough, that's my inner conspiracy theorist happening :b (Every part of the US government is obviously in cahoots with Uber as part of a complex scheme to take over the world, right?). Okay, probably not intentional on their part, but I think it's really disappointing that this is the video they had to share. The video itself is manipulative, and surely they would realize that. It provides some context, but the prevailing focus is "look how dark much darker those pixels are than those other pixels!", which just isn't useful.
  - java_script 9y ago
    No conspiracy needed. AZ wants to appear friendly to self driving car companies (e.g. they already don't regulate them as hard as CA.). A single undesirable being taken out isn't gonna change that. Plus it's not like AZ has a long history of pedestrian friendliness anyway. It's practically engineered to harm them, with 2mi between crosswalks
- InclinedPlane 9y ago
  In vehicle vs. pedestrian or bicyclist scenarios the criminal justice system is almost always tremendously biased toward the vehicle driver, unless the victim happened to have been a child in a residential area.

jaccarmac 9y ago

Some of the comments in this thread are ridiculous, and your comment throws them into sharp relief. Even if the video is a perfectly faithful reproduction of the scene and the dark parts are that dark, why in the world would the software assume a space it has next to no information about is safe to drive into at the current speed?

tedmiston 9y ago
> a space it has next to no information about The car is equipped with more than just an RGB camera sensor wise, such as the Velodyne LiDAR, so it does have information about the scene despite being pitch black to the naked eye. http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-custom-lidar-tech-not-ready-google-waymo-lawsuit-2017-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-custom-lidar-tech-not-re... http://velodynelidar.com/hdl-64e.html http://velodynelidar.com/hdl-64e.html https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/11/ford-lidar-autonomous-car/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/11/ford-lidar-autonomous-car/
- jaccarmac 9y ago
  > even if That's why I specified. In any case thanks for clarifying.
  - tedmiston 9y ago
    Yeah, my point is that the RGB video could be a perfectly faithful reproduction of the scene* and also the software could have reached decision from multi-sensor data that hasn't yet been released (i.e., a dark spot in some video frames from one of the RGB cameras doesn't imply that the autonomous system lacked info). *Though we can assume that this dashcam footage is lower quality / resolution / less precise than what the sensors had access to.

URSpider94 9y ago

The police department released the video, not Uber.

dylan-m 9y ago
Mm, fair enough, that's my inner conspiracy theorist happening :b (Every part of the US government is obviously in cahoots with Uber as part of a complex scheme to take over the world, right?). Okay, probably not intentional on their part, but I think it's really disappointing that this is the video they had to share. The video itself is manipulative, and surely they would realize that. It provides some context, but the prevailing focus is "look how dark much darker those pixels are than those other pixels!", which just isn't useful.
- java_script 9y ago
  No conspiracy needed. AZ wants to appear friendly to self driving car companies (e.g. they already don't regulate them as hard as CA.). A single undesirable being taken out isn't gonna change that. Plus it's not like AZ has a long history of pedestrian friendliness anyway. It's practically engineered to harm them, with 2mi between crosswalks
InclinedPlane 9y ago
In vehicle vs. pedestrian or bicyclist scenarios the criminal justice system is almost always tremendously biased toward the vehicle driver, unless the victim happened to have been a child in a residential area.