5 ms·

The article mentions that the car was going "40 miles an hour in a 45-mile-an-hour zone." Is there a more reliable source stating that the car was speeding?

• sethev 9y ago
  Seems an odd question. Do have some reason to think it was speeding?
  • danso 9y ago
    Early reports said the police stated the AV was going 38 in a 35mph zone
    • drawkbox 9y ago
      It is right in a transition period between 35mph and 45mph. The Mill ave bridge is 35mph and Mill ave is slow (25mph) because it is an urban area and by ASU and Tempe Town Lake with lots of pedestrians. After the bridge it changes to 45mph so it could be the Uber was also in a 10mph speed up phase in the hundreds of feet from the bridge right where the pedestrian was.
      • lsaferite 9y ago
        The accident was ~590ft after the speed increase.
        • drawkbox 9y ago
          So about 6-8 seconds or so, as the car was still accelerating most likely. There is also probably a slight delay for AI based driving after speed limits change, so probably closer to 4-5 seconds later.
          • saalweachter 9y ago
            That actually sounds like a potential corner case - braking while still accelerating. I'd hope to all that's holy that sort of corner case comes up in your first million miles of testing and not basically in production, but it sets my debugging nose a-twitching.
      • xevb3k 9y ago
        Is that how speed limits work in the US? It’s my understanding (elsewhere) that the limit is in enforcement after you past the sign, not at some unspecified distance before it, or when you see it. The sign itself is the only transition point between limits.
        • ams6110 9y ago
          Yes that is the way it works in the US, but as a practical matter most people start speeding up as soon as the higher speed limit sign comes into view. And of course conversely they don't start slowing down until they pass the sign posting the slower limit.
          • foobar1962 9y ago
            I was going to post that! What are “reasonable” rules for autonomous vehicles? Should they stick to the limit literally, so only start accelerating after the increased limit sign? (There will need to be warning signs when a speed limit reduction is ahead to give the vehicle time to comply.) Would a vehicle speeding up before the sign indicate a failure or error in the system?
            • kosievdmerwe 9y ago
              It's important to follow the average speed of the traffic you are in, if you keep to the speed limit while driving slower than the average your driving causes a danger on the road by causing people to drive around you and changing lanes and speeds is where accidents happen.
              • acranox 9y ago
                The slow driver isn’t creating the danger though. It’s all the drivers going over that actually create the danger you describe. If everyone just followed the laws, the danger you describe would no longer exist. Normalization if traffic violations is compounding the problem of the danger we face on the roads. So many problems could be solved and so many lives saved if people just followed the laws. The fact that everyone isn’t following the laws doesn’t need to be accepted as status quo.
      • tzs 9y ago
        I suspect that the 35 mph reports came from the other side of the street. On the northbound side it changes from 35 mph to 45 mph right after the bridge just before the freeway. Southbound, it changes from 45 mph to 35 mph about 140 feet after Washington St, well before the freeway and bridge, and about 150 ft north of where the accident occurred. If someone near the scene wanted to find the speed limit, and failed to consider that the two directions might have different speeds, I'd expect them to be more likely to find the southbound speed. That's because it is common to place speed limit signs shortly after intersections so that people turning onto the road won't have to go long to find out the correct speed limit. So I'd expect them to head toward the Washington/Mill intersection to start searching for a speed limit sign. For the curious, here is the accident location on Google street view [1]. Back up 17 steps from that, continuing to face north, if you want to see the applicable speed limit sign. Or cross to the other side from the accident location and go north 8 steps to find the speed limit for the southbound road (it's on the last street light before you reach the intersection). [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4363673,-111.9425082,3a,75y,323h,84.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sseIHdIkV5FyYzACTGokvBg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4363673,-111.9425082,3a,75y,...
  • bhauer 9y ago
    The grandparent comment implied it was speeding: > and an algorithm which encouraged the car to speed 3 mph over the limit when it was dark conditions But the linked NYT article said 40 in a 45 zone.