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Most people who are ran over by human drivers dont get articles. Are driverless cars generally safer right now? Will it be a worthwhile sacrifice to get to a p

Most people who are ran over by human drivers dont get articles. Are driverless cars generally safer right now? Will it be a worthwhile sacrifice to get to a point where accidents are rare?

battles 3y ago
In this case she did get an article. Apparently she was hit and knocked down by a human driver first and then the cruise ran her over.
- RetroTechie 3y ago
  That's an interesting detail! Perhaps she was lying down & the Cruise smarts didn't perceive her as a pedestrian, but more like an obstacle / 'bump' in the road? Just speculating here, but would be useful to find out. If human drivers see a pedestrian get hit or someone falling down, we instinctively know that's a human there on the pavement (and try to avoid at all costs, just like for pedestrians walking around). Or avoid human-shaped / human-sized objects just in case. If a self-driving car would lose track of a human as soon as it stops looking like a typical pedestrian, that would be a problem.
  - jjfoooo5 3y ago
    As per Cruise statement: >>> The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV. The AV then braked aggressively to minimize the impact.
The_suffocated 3y ago
While news media are over-reactive to accidents involving self-driving cars, if such an accident is caused some vulnerability in the driving algorithm that is not so easy to fix or improve, its impact is potentially widespread, because the same vulnerability is shared by other cars.
- jstarfish 3y ago
  To be fair to Cruise, training data for situations like this is going to be sparse. Most of us will drive for an entire lifetime and never come across a body in the road.
  - TheCoelacanth 3y ago
    Also, what are you even supposed to do if another car strikes a pedestrian and launches them directly in front of your car? Aggressively braking to minimize the damage is probably the best you can do, and it seems like that's what the car did.
beardyw 3y ago
Only if you are willing to be that sacrifice.
netsharc 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_bites_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_bites_dog In this case the newsworthiness comes from the fact that driverless cars are new...

Most people who are ran over by human drivers dont get articles. Are driverless cars generally safer right now? Will it be a worthwhile sacrifice to get to a point where accidents are rare?

battles 3y ago

In this case she did get an article. Apparently she was hit and knocked down by a human driver first and then the cruise ran her over.

RetroTechie 3y ago
That's an interesting detail! Perhaps she was lying down & the Cruise smarts didn't perceive her as a pedestrian, but more like an obstacle / 'bump' in the road? Just speculating here, but would be useful to find out. If human drivers see a pedestrian get hit or someone falling down, we instinctively know that's a human there on the pavement (and try to avoid at all costs, just like for pedestrians walking around). Or avoid human-shaped / human-sized objects just in case. If a self-driving car would lose track of a human as soon as it stops looking like a typical pedestrian, that would be a problem.
- jjfoooo5 3y ago
  As per Cruise statement: >>> The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV. The AV then braked aggressively to minimize the impact.

The_suffocated 3y ago

While news media are over-reactive to accidents involving self-driving cars, if such an accident is caused some vulnerability in the driving algorithm that is not so easy to fix or improve, its impact is potentially widespread, because the same vulnerability is shared by other cars.

jstarfish 3y ago
To be fair to Cruise, training data for situations like this is going to be sparse. Most of us will drive for an entire lifetime and never come across a body in the road.
- TheCoelacanth 3y ago
  Also, what are you even supposed to do if another car strikes a pedestrian and launches them directly in front of your car? Aggressively braking to minimize the damage is probably the best you can do, and it seems like that's what the car did.

beardyw 3y ago

Only if you are willing to be that sacrifice.

netsharc 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_bites_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_bites_dog In this case the newsworthiness comes from the fact that driverless cars are new...