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Those conditions sound like you wouldn't be driving. So, solved. Pull over and stop
by mdhen 8y ago
Those conditions sound like you wouldn't be driving. So, solved. Pull over and stop
- wool_gather 8y agoThis; arguing that a computer can't drive safely in conditions where a human can't either isn't an argument against computer drivers. Just because humans sometimes get away with it doesn't make it a good idea.
- skookumchuck 8y agoWell, I don't think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.
- ghaff 8y agoIt's not always possible to pull over. If it's snowing so heavily that driving has become dangerous there probably is no shoulder to pull over to, much less a shoulder you can safely pull over to. Source: I've been in these conditions. You do the best you can.
- bluGill 8y agoyou should pull over before then. There is in my experience plenty of warning to find a hotel first.
- archagon 8y agoWhile probably true, "then don't do that" almost never works as an excuse to convince new adopters of your technology.
- ben509 8y agoI'm not so sure that's true. Or, maybe, "that's user error" is what works because it seems like it's far too easy to convince users to blame themselves.
- archagon 8y agoWell, when all your friends can drive in the snow but your fancy-pants car can't, that's not a very compelling value proposition.
- nitrogen 8y agoYou must never have visited Hemet, CA, or driven anywhere it rains a lot sometimes, or has a real winter.
- smnrchrds 8y agoAnd don't pick up your phone with your right hand.
- manfredo 8y agoYou can drive in a torrential downpour. Short of actual flooding or the creation of large puddles, rain isn't all that bad of a driving condition. Be sure not to drive past the limits of visibility and increase follow distances from 2-3 to 5 seconds and you're good. Even motorcycle races are held in the rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv4_425K8r4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv4_425K8r4
- shiftpgdn 8y agoI have been in a lot of monsoon level downpours where it is effectively impossible to drive as visibility goes to 0. There are different types of rain.
- saalweachter 8y agoAt some point "no one[0] should be driving" becomes a valid answer. [0] I mean, there are going to be cases, but the number of people currently driving in horrific weather conditions because it would be inconvenient not to is too damn high.
- telchar 8y agoIt seems a lot of posters aren't willing to consider self-driving cars feasible until the cars are as foolhardy as the bottom-decile driver while still maintaining a perfect safety record. But most of accident prevention is in the planning more than the execution. It seems only reasonable to expect SDCs to avoid situations that some human drivers would brave if the risk is too high.
- rayiner 8y agoLOL. In Atlanta, highway traffic just slows down to 40 in torrential downpour conditions where you can’t see lane markings.
- mirimir 8y ago40 mph? On I95 in the DE-NY area, it's more like 60 mph in heavy rain. Or even in moderate snow. Everyone knows that they could never stop. But they're counting on others' inability to stop ;) But occasionally, there are massive chain-reaction pileups :(
- foobandit 8y agoThese are daily occurrences in parts of TX and FL in the summer, and people generally do drive through them.
- Niten 8y agoIt sounds like you've never lived in the southeast US? These conditions can occur on a daily basis in the summer, especially in Florida. "Pull over and stop" isn't realistic advice here. Humans can and do drive safely in these conditions, however, and it's a valid concern to point out that Waymo's West Coast-centric models might not yet be trained to handle these cases. (To be clear, I don't doubt that machines will eventually surpass humans in whatever weather conditions, if they haven't already.)
- xapata 8y ago> safely I've seen people do all sorts of foolish things. When the rain is so hard that I can't see more than 15 feet, I pull over and stop.
- Retra 8y agoHow does a car know it can't see well?
- adrianN 8y agoIt uses its sensors. If the LIDAR shows only white noise it knows that it can't see well.
- Retra 8y agoWhite noise certainly isn't the only indicator that one can't see well.
- wool_gather 8y agoHow does a human know it can't see well?
- Retra 8y agoWell, that's a great question. It's also basically equivalent to the one that I asked. My point would be that I don't have an answer to that question, and given your response, I bet you don't either. Which leaves either of us at a loss when we try to create a safe and reliable autonomous vehicle. It's certainly not an unanswerable question. It's just quite hard to verify that they answer you have is a sufficiently correct one.
- GCA10 8y agoI grew up with that kind of summer rain in Illinois, too. After about five minutes of it, yes, a lot of (sane) drivers pull over. But it comes on very suddenly, and for the first two or three minutes, traffic flows continue. If you're in the center lane and traffic is heavy on both sides of you, while your windshield (or camera) is overwhelmed with water, you need to keep moving with traffic for a bit -- or you get rear-ended.
- ppseafield 8y agoYou have to pull over when it happens. Sometimes those southeast flash flood rains go from bad to opaque in an instant. Depending on the road you may not have enough of a shoulder to pull over, and any other driver will only be able to see you at 5-10 feet away maximum and (initially) going 45-60mph. Not ending up in a ditch can be difficult.
- realandreskytt 8y agoI’d recommend visiting Finland. In these parts, there’s basically 3 months of optimal visibility. The rest is fog, rain, snow, sleet and road conditions that would shut down most of US. Yet people drive and do so safely. “What people can do” is a bit different from “what an average us driver can be expected to do”
- village-idiot 8y agoDoesn’t findland have a higher vehicle fatality rate than other nations?
- treerock 8y agoSeems to be less than half the US rate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
- village-idiot 8y agoAh, I was thinking of the UK. Finland has 50% more fatalities per mile than the UK.
- darawk 8y agoIt may be that regions with better climates receive these vehicles first. It's relatively straightforward to detect the prevalent conditions and refuse to drive if the weather is outside the scope for which the vehicle is rated. As the technology matures, that scope should broaden.
- justtopost 8y agoSo road trips are unaccounted for? Not a comforting idea that taking your car to another area will render it functionally unsafe on the (differently designed) roadways.
- 8y ago