Autonomous Vehicle Kills Pedestrian Walking Their Bike

[Vientomas]

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/77743...rian-in-fatal-

"The self-driving vehicle struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg on March 18, 2018, as she was walking across the street with her bicycle outside of a crosswalk.

According to the NTSB report, the SUV had "a fusion" of three sensor systems — radar, lidar and a camera — designed to detect an object and determine its trajectory. However, the system could not determine whether Herzberg was a pedestrian, vehicle, or bicycle. It also failed to correctly predict her path.

"The system design did not include a consideration for jaywalking pedestrians," the report said.

At 1.2 seconds before the fatal crash, the system identified Herzberg as a bicycle moving into the path of the Uber, but by then it was too late to safely brake and avoid a collision."

The Uber SUV — a Volvo XC90 — was supervised by Rafaela Vasquez. The Tempe police had previously determined that Vasquez was watching an episode of The Voice while operating the test vehicle, according to The Arizona Republic.

This is astounding: "The system design did not include a consideration for jaywalking pedestrians." That was not forseeable?

For those who think self-driving cars will create a safer road environment in which to ride...I'm not so sure. But, "drivers" watching television is not comforting either.

[tuscanyswe]

Isent this the same incident that there was a video of when it first happened.

As sad now as it was then.

[Dead Man]

not designed to deal with jaywalking peds..? wut

[Idris Icabod]

These things are all over AZ. Here in Tucson there is a company developing autonomous big rigs that make runs up to Phoenix daily. One was involved in a Interstate crash a few weeks ago on a seemingly very benign stretch of road.

Being a road user for a lot of years, I see stuff every day that makes me scratch my head. As a human, we are capable of processing irrational behavior from others, a computer controlling a car must be a complete bugger to program to predict the unpredictable!

[kppolich]

How many pedestrians were killed by automobiles with people behind the wheel last year? I bet it was more than 1 that was hit by this autonomous example.

Answered my question:
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/69919...es-report-says
"A new report by the GHSA determined about 6,227 pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2018 — a 4 percent increase over 2017 and the highest mortality rate since 1990."

[Seramount]

faulty sensor system design and a distracted human overseer...bad combination.

PBS had a segment recently about AI that examined robotics, including autonomous vehicles and a self-driving big rig company called Embark.

https://embarktrucks.com/

bottom line of the show was that this tech is coming whether we like it or not...and a bunch of humans are going to need to find new jobs.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by kppolich

How many pedestrians were killed by automobiles with people behind the wheel last year? I bet it was more than 1 that was hit by this autonomous example.

This is no doubt correct. But ... While it may not be justifiable on logical grounds, I suspect that the general public has a greater tolerance for crashes caused by human error than by computer error.

[jtbadge]

sample size, bro.

deaths vs. miles driven for these "smart" autonomous vehicles is way too high for them to be allowed on public roads, especially if they "haven't accounted for pedestrians."

Putting more peoples lives at stake while they "work out the kinks" is absolutely unacceptable.

[Dead Man]

im all about self driving cars.. i want a car i can stumble into the back seat of and slur "home, james" and then i wake up in my driveway at 10am w no body damage on the car

seems we just arent there yet

[benb]

And then they go and use "jaywalking" to denigrate/blame the pedestrian..

The entire term is an invention of the car industry/lobby to try and make it illegitimate for someone to be on the road without being in a car.

[David Tollefson]

Originally Posted by Vientomas

For those who think self-driving cars will create a safer road environment in which to ride...

Oh, it will. You just won't be able to ride on public roads.

[Black Dog]

For the full context of this deadly collision watch:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/look-whos-driving/

The vehicle was a test vehicle for uber. There was a test driver in the car and she was not watching the road as she was supposed to in case of something like this happened. She was streaming netflix.

[Dekonick]

Originally Posted by Vientomas

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/77743...rian-in-fatal-

"The self-driving vehicle struck and killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg on March 18, 2018, as she was walking across the street with her bicycle outside of a crosswalk.

According to the NTSB report, the SUV had "a fusion" of three sensor systems — radar, lidar and a camera — designed to detect an object and determine its trajectory. However, the system could not determine whether Herzberg was a pedestrian, vehicle, or bicycle. It also failed to correctly predict her path.

"The system design did not include a consideration for jaywalking pedestrians," the report said

At 1.2 seconds before the fatal crash, the system identified Herzberg as a bicycle moving into the path of the Uber, but by then it was too late to safely brake and avoid a collision."

The Uber SUV — a Volvo XC90 — was supervised by Rafaela Vasquez. The Tempe police had previously determined that Vasquez was watching an episode of The Voice while operating the test vehicle, according to The Arizona Republic.

This is astounding: "The system design did not include a consideration for jaywalking pedestrians." That was not forseeable?

For those who think self-driving cars will create a safer road environment in which to ride...I'm not so sure. But, "drivers" watching television is not comforting either.

I can't even begin to count how many dead jaywalking pedestrians I have encountered in a 25 year career in the fire department. None were killed by self driving vehicles. I feel MUCH safer with self driving vehicles than humans.

The data (per hour driven) I am confident will support what I believe to be true - that people suck at driving compared to autonomous vehicles... and autonomous vehicles will only continue to improve. My bet is all algorithms will be adjusted to now include j-walkers...

[simonov]

Originally Posted by jtbadge

sample size, bro.

deaths vs. miles driven for these "smart" autonomous vehicles is way too high for them to be allowed on public roads, especially if they "haven't accounted for pedestrians."

Putting more peoples lives at stake while they "work out the kinks" is absolutely unacceptable.

I agree. From a quick google search, there are around 1,400 AVs on the road in the US. And around 270 million registered cars. So, even if you take a conservative approach and only consider this one incident as a mark against AVs and consider just a small portion of those registered cars to account for lower per vehicle hours driven and all the cars that sit idle most of the time, the AVs have a worse record.

[clyde the point]

Originally Posted by Dead Man

im all about self driving cars.. i want a car i can stumble into the back seat of and slur "home, james" and then i wake up in my driveway at 10am w no body damage on the car

seems we just arent there yet

Which brings up an interesting point. If you are under the influence in a self driving car, and you are letting the car do the actual driving, then is that a DUI?