4 ms·

> Still, you would think that there would be some threshold where the car decides, "Hey, this stationary obstacle is right in front of me. I should slow down"

> Still, you would think that there would be some threshold where the car decides, "Hey, this stationary obstacle is right in front of me. I should slow down" From the article: > When a car is moving at low speeds, slamming on the brakes isn't a big risk. A car traveling at 20mph can afford to wait until an object is quite close before slamming on the brakes, making unnecessary stops unlikely. Short stopping distances also mean that a car slamming on the brakes at 20mph is unlikely to get rear-ended. But the calculation changes for a car traveling at 70mph. In this case, preventing a crash requires slamming on the brakes while the car is still far away from a potential obstacle. That makes it more likely that the car will misunderstand the situation—for example, wrongly interpreting an object that's merely near the road as being in the road. Sudden braking at high speed can startle the driver, leading to erratic driving behavior. And it also creates a danger that the car behind won't stop in time, leading to a rear-end collision.

jstarfish 8y ago
So...dont brake suddenly. Decelerate, buy some time to collect and analyze more data and if the end result still appears to be a collision, then brake hard. If a human driver started hallucinating behind the wheel, we would expect them to do the same, not maintain speed (or accelerate!) through the supposed object in their path. This tech was supposed to be safer and more convenient than human driving, not a simulation of the decision-making abilities of a 12-year-old playing Grand Theft Auto.
- stephengillie 8y ago
  > So...dont brake suddenly. Decelerate, buy some time to collect and analyze more data and if the end result still appears to be a collision, then brake hard. This requires the automated brake computers to be connected to the autonomous cruise computers. According to the article, in most cars, these computers are separate systems. It's like if one person operated the brake pedal, another operated the gas, and a third steering the car. When one hallucinates, the others might not realize right away.

jstarfish 8y ago

So...dont brake suddenly. Decelerate, buy some time to collect and analyze more data and if the end result still appears to be a collision, then brake hard. If a human driver started hallucinating behind the wheel, we would expect them to do the same, not maintain speed (or accelerate!) through the supposed object in their path. This tech was supposed to be safer and more convenient than human driving, not a simulation of the decision-making abilities of a 12-year-old playing Grand Theft Auto.

stephengillie 8y ago
> So...dont brake suddenly. Decelerate, buy some time to collect and analyze more data and if the end result still appears to be a collision, then brake hard. This requires the automated brake computers to be connected to the autonomous cruise computers. According to the article, in most cars, these computers are separate systems. It's like if one person operated the brake pedal, another operated the gas, and a third steering the car. When one hallucinates, the others might not realize right away.