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It's actually the rest of that statement which shocks me a bit: > In the meantime, we have initiated a top-to-bottom safety review of our self-driving vehicle

by TillE 9y ago

It's actually the rest of that statement which shocks me a bit: > In the meantime, we have initiated a top-to-bottom safety review of our self-driving vehicles program, So they actually think they can continue to work on self-driving vehicles after this, and not scrap the program entirely. That's...not what I expected. No municipality in the country should allow Uber to test on their streets after they killed someone, almost certainly because of their recklessly fast development. That's not something you come back from by promising to Do Better, especially not when there are more than a few competitors already way ahead of you.

lhorie 9y ago
> No municipality in the country should allow Uber to test on their streets after they killed someone This is pitchfork mentality. Many industries have to deal with unintentional deaths. Car manufacturers sometimes have to deal with deaths resulting from hardware failure. Food companies sometimes have to deal with recalls due to food poisoning deaths. If the response to a death is to ban all further production work, eventually nothing is ever going to get done because it's inherently impossible to be perfect all the time. It sucks that it had to come to someone's death, but the rest of the statement said: > we have brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture so it sounds like Uber is at least trying in earnest to put the house in order.
- cimmanom 9y ago
  Or a cynic could interpret that as "we've hired a crony of the people who will be judging us so he can lobby them to let us off easy".
  - lhorie 9y ago
    Said cynic sounds pitchforky. Even HIPAA tries to work with non-compliant companies to get them compliant before resorting to dishing out their notoriously expensive fines. At the end of the day, the NTSB isn't in the game of shutting down companies. NTSB would much rather see that self-driving vehicle development is happening safely since the matter of the fact is that it _is_ happening, despite all of its imperfections.
    - oldgradstudent 9y ago
      Hiring a former NTSB chair while there's an active NTSB investigations sounds a lot like a revolving door to me.
      - lhorie 9y ago
        Um, to go back to being NTSB chair, he would have to be re-appointed by the POTUS... One does not just hire this guy as if he was some sort of money-chasing sleazeball. I mean, just google the guy's bio
        oldgradstudent 9y ago
        I may have abused the 'revolving door' term a bit, but I think you are missing the point of hiring former regulators. You are not hiring them for their bio, achievements or abilities. You are hiring them to signal existing and future regulators that being nice to you can be highly profitable.
        lhorie 9y ago
        You keep saying Uber hired him, but where did you read that? The statement in the article said "we have brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us". Given how high profile Hart is, and given the focus of his career, I understood that to mean that he agreed to review safety practices and make safety policy recommendations, a topic in which he's an expert on. Unlike wording like "joining to lead a safety program", this arrangement doesn't really imply profit-driven motivation, IMHO.
        oldgradstudent 9y ago
        I don't see any other way to interpret their statement: > Uber, which suspended testing of autonomous vehicles after the accident, on Monday said it was looking at its self-driving program and said it retained Christopher Hart, a former chairman of the NTSB, to advise it on safety. > “We have initiated a top-to-bottom safety review of our self-driving vehicles program, and we have brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture,” Uber said. “Our review is looking at everything from the safety of our system to our training processes for vehicle operators, and we hope to have more to say soon.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving/uber-hires-safety-adviser-after-fatal-crash-wont-confirm-report-on-software-flaw-idUSKBN1I81Z4 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving/uber-hir...

by TillE 9y ago

lhorie 9y ago

> No municipality in the country should allow Uber to test on their streets after they killed someone This is pitchfork mentality. Many industries have to deal with unintentional deaths. Car manufacturers sometimes have to deal with deaths resulting from hardware failure. Food companies sometimes have to deal with recalls due to food poisoning deaths. If the response to a death is to ban all further production work, eventually nothing is ever going to get done because it's inherently impossible to be perfect all the time. It sucks that it had to come to someone's death, but the rest of the statement said: > we have brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture so it sounds like Uber is at least trying in earnest to put the house in order.

cimmanom 9y ago
Or a cynic could interpret that as "we've hired a crony of the people who will be judging us so he can lobby them to let us off easy".
- lhorie 9y ago
  Said cynic sounds pitchforky. Even HIPAA tries to work with non-compliant companies to get them compliant before resorting to dishing out their notoriously expensive fines. At the end of the day, the NTSB isn't in the game of shutting down companies. NTSB would much rather see that self-driving vehicle development is happening safely since the matter of the fact is that it _is_ happening, despite all of its imperfections.
  - oldgradstudent 9y ago
    Hiring a former NTSB chair while there's an active NTSB investigations sounds a lot like a revolving door to me.
    - lhorie 9y ago
      Um, to go back to being NTSB chair, he would have to be re-appointed by the POTUS... One does not just hire this guy as if he was some sort of money-chasing sleazeball. I mean, just google the guy's bio
      - oldgradstudent 9y ago
        I may have abused the 'revolving door' term a bit, but I think you are missing the point of hiring former regulators. You are not hiring them for their bio, achievements or abilities. You are hiring them to signal existing and future regulators that being nice to you can be highly profitable.
        lhorie 9y ago
        You keep saying Uber hired him, but where did you read that? The statement in the article said "we have brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us". Given how high profile Hart is, and given the focus of his career, I understood that to mean that he agreed to review safety practices and make safety policy recommendations, a topic in which he's an expert on. Unlike wording like "joining to lead a safety program", this arrangement doesn't really imply profit-driven motivation, IMHO.
        oldgradstudent 9y ago
        I don't see any other way to interpret their statement: > Uber, which suspended testing of autonomous vehicles after the accident, on Monday said it was looking at its self-driving program and said it retained Christopher Hart, a former chairman of the NTSB, to advise it on safety. > “We have initiated a top-to-bottom safety review of our self-driving vehicles program, and we have brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture,” Uber said. “Our review is looking at everything from the safety of our system to our training processes for vehicle operators, and we hope to have more to say soon.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving/uber-hires-safety-adviser-after-fatal-crash-wont-confirm-report-on-software-flaw-idUSKBN1I81Z4 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving/uber-hir...