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How terrifying that must have been for all of the humans involved! You would think that emergency services vehicles would be equipped to broadcast shutdown code

How terrifying that must have been for all of the humans involved! You would think that emergency services vehicles would be equipped to broadcast shutdown codes to nearby driverless vehicles when their sirens are on. It’s my understanding that some intersections are equipped with devices to keep lights from changing when emergency vehicles (fire, police, ems) are moving through.

HWR_14 3y ago
Is Cruise offering to pay for the devices and retrofit them onto all vehicles? Or is the city supposed to pay for it as a gift to Cruise's bottom line?
Mordisquitos 3y ago
It is not the responsibility of emergency services to make their vehicles predictable and tractable so as to make up for the shortcomings of self-driving cars. It is the responsibility of self-driving car operators to make their cars able to deal with the unpredictability and unforseen events that may happen on the road, particularly when first responders are handling an emergency.
- politician 3y ago
  That’s completely wrong. There’s a reason fire trucks are painted brightly, have flashing lights and loud sirens, and can interact with intersections to flip lights: our governments have determined that these features are useful to make them conspicuous. Adding a sonic broadcast is just another doodad on the roof wired to the sirens and supported by laws to force autonomous vehicle manufacturers implement support.
  - Mordisquitos 3y ago
    > There’s a reason fire trucks are painted brightly, have flashing lights and loud sirens Exactly. And why are those not enough for self-driving cars?
    - politician 3y ago
      Why aren't bright paint and flashing lights enough? Why do we need loud sirens too? The answer is that communicating over multiple spectrums turns out to be useful. Adding one more isn't the Herculean effort folks commenting on this proposal seem to think it is. Why isn't it in our national best interest for AV companies to standardize on an emergency shutdown/slowdown protocol? A cryptographically signed digital broadcast is a lot safer than relying on light/sound detection. It works in a variety of weather conditions and is much harder to spoof.
- bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
  For the record, emergency vehicles are highly predictable and tractable: they have sirens and lights and will predictably not follow traffic laws when those indicators are on. It beggars belief that self driving cars are unable to correctly respond to such conspicuous signals.
blq10 3y ago
This is a half of a good idea, but frankly every road mile traveled, airline flight, walk to the grocery store creates some number of dead people - I find this reaction from SF to be concerning because we appear to be placing higher standards on AVs than we are on humans.
ausbah 3y ago
the burden should lie with Cruise. instead, in typical tech fashion, they “move fast and break things” except now it’s interfering with emergency services, blocking traffic randomly, etc.

HWR_14 3y ago

Is Cruise offering to pay for the devices and retrofit them onto all vehicles? Or is the city supposed to pay for it as a gift to Cruise's bottom line?

Mordisquitos 3y ago

It is not the responsibility of emergency services to make their vehicles predictable and tractable so as to make up for the shortcomings of self-driving cars. It is the responsibility of self-driving car operators to make their cars able to deal with the unpredictability and unforseen events that may happen on the road, particularly when first responders are handling an emergency.

politician 3y ago
That’s completely wrong. There’s a reason fire trucks are painted brightly, have flashing lights and loud sirens, and can interact with intersections to flip lights: our governments have determined that these features are useful to make them conspicuous. Adding a sonic broadcast is just another doodad on the roof wired to the sirens and supported by laws to force autonomous vehicle manufacturers implement support.
- Mordisquitos 3y ago
  > There’s a reason fire trucks are painted brightly, have flashing lights and loud sirens Exactly. And why are those not enough for self-driving cars?
  - politician 3y ago
    Why aren't bright paint and flashing lights enough? Why do we need loud sirens too? The answer is that communicating over multiple spectrums turns out to be useful. Adding one more isn't the Herculean effort folks commenting on this proposal seem to think it is. Why isn't it in our national best interest for AV companies to standardize on an emergency shutdown/slowdown protocol? A cryptographically signed digital broadcast is a lot safer than relying on light/sound detection. It works in a variety of weather conditions and is much harder to spoof.
bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
For the record, emergency vehicles are highly predictable and tractable: they have sirens and lights and will predictably not follow traffic laws when those indicators are on. It beggars belief that self driving cars are unable to correctly respond to such conspicuous signals.

blq10 3y ago

This is a half of a good idea, but frankly every road mile traveled, airline flight, walk to the grocery store creates some number of dead people - I find this reaction from SF to be concerning because we appear to be placing higher standards on AVs than we are on humans.

ausbah 3y ago

the burden should lie with Cruise. instead, in typical tech fashion, they “move fast and break things” except now it’s interfering with emergency services, blocking traffic randomly, etc.