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Waymo will get better at this. But even without them getting better, as far as I know there were zero waymo fatalities due to this. That's more than I can say

by _ea1k 10mo ago

Waymo will get better at this. But even without them getting better, as far as I know there were zero waymo fatalities due to this. That's more than I can say about Helene, where there was at least one fatality due to traffic light outages. Lets not forget that a big part of why we want Waymo is that it has already lead to a dramatic decrease in fatal accidents. They are a great company that will do a lot of good for the world. One bad night (in which noone was hurt, in part because of their cautiuosness) shouldn't negate that.

jordanb 10mo ago
"Hey guys what are you complaining about? We didn't (directly) kill anyone!"
- amazingman 10mo ago
  You're being sarcastic, but it's a valid point. I'd love to know if there were any traffic fatalities at all during the affected period. Chances are there were and that they were due to human error.
  - tomjakubowski 10mo ago
    > Chances are there were and that they were due to human error. Eh, I don't know. ~40 people die from traffic collisions each year in San Francisco, so about one every nine days. People would be driving more cautiously without traffic signals or street lights, and most collisions at intersections would occur a relatively low speed assuming drivers treat the dead signal as a stop sign. The risk of death for drivers might be higher during a power outage like that, but I doubt it would be 9x (and the outage lasted less a full day).
- SR2Z 10mo ago
  Seeing as how literally nobody died, I'm not sure if I agree with your sentiment. I was curious if Waymo has even been involved with a crash that killed someone, so I looked it up. The answer is yes - there was a Tesla going 98mph in SoMa whose driver died after hitting a Waymo. Clearly we should shut down Waymo until they can handle that situation!
- that_was_good 10mo ago
  39,345 People were killed in traffic accidents last year in the US alone [1]. Not including permanent injury. If humans were replaced by self driving cars at their current accident rate, 34,000 less people a year would die [2]. Even if every US city had Waymos blocking the street for every single disaster, as they did here. I find it extremely unlikely that even the indirect deaths would come close to that number. And that's assuming Waymo learn from this lesson. Which they will. [1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-estimates-39345-traffic-fatalities-2024 https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-estimates-39345-t... [2] https://storage.googleapis.com/waymo-uploads/files/documents/safety/Safety%20Impact%20Crash%20Type%20Manuscript.pdf?ueid=d53ef47af440270d1bbea443a6a43d31&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Good%20News%205/4/25&utm_term=Good%20News https://storage.googleapis.com/waymo-uploads/files/documents...

by _ea1k 10mo ago

jordanb 10mo ago

"Hey guys what are you complaining about? We didn't (directly) kill anyone!"

amazingman 10mo ago
You're being sarcastic, but it's a valid point. I'd love to know if there were any traffic fatalities at all during the affected period. Chances are there were and that they were due to human error.
- tomjakubowski 10mo ago
  > Chances are there were and that they were due to human error. Eh, I don't know. ~40 people die from traffic collisions each year in San Francisco, so about one every nine days. People would be driving more cautiously without traffic signals or street lights, and most collisions at intersections would occur a relatively low speed assuming drivers treat the dead signal as a stop sign. The risk of death for drivers might be higher during a power outage like that, but I doubt it would be 9x (and the outage lasted less a full day).
SR2Z 10mo ago
Seeing as how literally nobody died, I'm not sure if I agree with your sentiment. I was curious if Waymo has even been involved with a crash that killed someone, so I looked it up. The answer is yes - there was a Tesla going 98mph in SoMa whose driver died after hitting a Waymo. Clearly we should shut down Waymo until they can handle that situation!
that_was_good 10mo ago
39,345 People were killed in traffic accidents last year in the US alone [1]. Not including permanent injury. If humans were replaced by self driving cars at their current accident rate, 34,000 less people a year would die [2]. Even if every US city had Waymos blocking the street for every single disaster, as they did here. I find it extremely unlikely that even the indirect deaths would come close to that number. And that's assuming Waymo learn from this lesson. Which they will. [1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-estimates-39345-traffic-fatalities-2024 https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-estimates-39345-t... [2] https://storage.googleapis.com/waymo-uploads/files/documents/safety/Safety%20Impact%20Crash%20Type%20Manuscript.pdf?ueid=d53ef47af440270d1bbea443a6a43d31&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Good%20News%205/4/25&utm_term=Good%20News https://storage.googleapis.com/waymo-uploads/files/documents...