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Blame the driver... of course the driver was told that the car drove itself... he was watching a show on his phone when it happened so Uber is putting the blame

Blame the driver... of course the driver was told that the car drove itself... he was watching a show on his phone when it happened so Uber is putting the blame on him. I don't think the driver was trained properly to drive in that semi-automated driving system. Is the fault lying with him or is Uber just trying to lay the blame on him to avoid paying anything.

jimktrains2 8y ago
Trains have had dead man's switches for nearly 50 years at least. You can't give people the job of paying attention if there is nothing to pay attention to 80%, 90% of the time. It's not reasonable to me to expect someone to be at peak alertness while doing nothing at all.
- smileysteve 8y ago
  It is reasonable, however, that they not be watching a cell phone when they're being paid to be a backup driver. The optics for the driver were really bad. They weren't just not paying attention, they weren't "just" eating and drinking (something accepted in American driving for the last 60 years), they weren't staring blankly into the desert, they didn't fall asleep. No, they were doing the one thing that has received the most public messaging for the last decade.
  - jimktrains2 8y ago
    > The optics for the driver were really bad. Oh don't get me wrong. I don't feel like the driver is blameless. I just mean that people not paying attention when they don't have to do anything isn't a new problem or one without what seems to be an adequate solution.
- WillPostForFood 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Philadelphia_train_derailment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Philadelphia_train_derail... dead man's switches don't activate when the engineer is simply distracted.
smallgovt 8y ago
>> I don't think the driver was trained properly to drive in that semi-automated driving system Any source to back up this claim?
- fucking_tragedy 8y ago
  The car detected an obstacle, but had emergency breaking disabled by Uber, so it didn't stop. According to the article, the system didn't alert the driver of an obstacle despite detecting it. To me, that's an insane failure mode.
  - theblackcat1002 8y ago
    Note the emergency breaking system isn't part of the Uber self driving system, rather it came from the car manufacturer. Uber simply disabled all the settings, including all the safety features. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614200117/ntsb-uber-self-driving-car-had-disabled-emergency-brake-system-before-fatal-cras https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614200117...
    - FireBeyond 8y ago
      That makes them less responsible (as opposed to liable) how, precisely?
    - fucking_tragedy 8y ago
      Their system detected an obstacle and did nothing as it slammed into a woman at 40mph.
    - rayiner 8y ago
      Right. They disabled Volvo’s system and their own emergency braking didn’t work (apparently created too many false positives). It was criminal negligence to put the car on the road in that situation.

jimktrains2 8y ago

Trains have had dead man's switches for nearly 50 years at least. You can't give people the job of paying attention if there is nothing to pay attention to 80%, 90% of the time. It's not reasonable to me to expect someone to be at peak alertness while doing nothing at all.

smileysteve 8y ago
It is reasonable, however, that they not be watching a cell phone when they're being paid to be a backup driver. The optics for the driver were really bad. They weren't just not paying attention, they weren't "just" eating and drinking (something accepted in American driving for the last 60 years), they weren't staring blankly into the desert, they didn't fall asleep. No, they were doing the one thing that has received the most public messaging for the last decade.
- jimktrains2 8y ago
  > The optics for the driver were really bad. Oh don't get me wrong. I don't feel like the driver is blameless. I just mean that people not paying attention when they don't have to do anything isn't a new problem or one without what seems to be an adequate solution.
WillPostForFood 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Philadelphia_train_derailment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Philadelphia_train_derail... dead man's switches don't activate when the engineer is simply distracted.

smallgovt 8y ago

>> I don't think the driver was trained properly to drive in that semi-automated driving system Any source to back up this claim?

fucking_tragedy 8y ago
The car detected an obstacle, but had emergency breaking disabled by Uber, so it didn't stop. According to the article, the system didn't alert the driver of an obstacle despite detecting it. To me, that's an insane failure mode.
- theblackcat1002 8y ago
  Note the emergency breaking system isn't part of the Uber self driving system, rather it came from the car manufacturer. Uber simply disabled all the settings, including all the safety features. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614200117/ntsb-uber-self-driving-car-had-disabled-emergency-brake-system-before-fatal-cras https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/24/614200117...
  - FireBeyond 8y ago
    That makes them less responsible (as opposed to liable) how, precisely?
  - fucking_tragedy 8y ago
    Their system detected an obstacle and did nothing as it slammed into a woman at 40mph.
  - rayiner 8y ago
    Right. They disabled Volvo’s system and their own emergency braking didn’t work (apparently created too many false positives). It was criminal negligence to put the car on the road in that situation.