[MightyMouseTech]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/t...-fatality.html

Will be interesting to see exactly what the hell happened.

Update 3/20:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business...photo-15258163

[Captain Blood]

I would wonder if a normal driver would have hit him/her. If so, hopefully it won't set things back too much. I still think my kids will be in self-driving cars by the time they are 30. They get their drivers licences on Wednesday.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by Real Dodger

I would wonder if a normal driver would have hit him/her. If so, hopefully it won't set things back too much. I still think my kids will be in self-driving cars by the time they are 30. They get their drivers licences on Wednesday.

Will be interesting. They have an ungodly amount of cameras on them, so it will get a very thorough investigation. The lawyers are probably already pouring over the data.

[NickyC]

Autonomous vehicles are decades away from being a reality for most, I doubt they'll happen at all except for a few, very narrow purposes/situations.

Most of the hype is driven by Tesla and other car makers who are trying to stamp their hold on the future, and as we know Musk is full of bravado and broken promises.

Sure they've got to a certain point, but to make it main stream and acceptable as a form of transportation for all, they're far, far away from that point.

Also RIP to the victim here. Obviously a tragedy whether or not the car is to blame.

[FC4]

How many pedestrians were struck and killed today by traditional human-driven cars?

[RABAUKE]

Originally Posted by FC4

How many pedestrians were struck and killed today by traditional human-driven cars?

Yup, but so much easier to assess blame. This will be a legal nightmare, who's responsible. The guy behind the wheel, the programer, Tesla, Donald Trump? As more autonomous vehicles are on the road there will be more problems that the programmers can't foresee....interesting times.....I for one have less than zero interest in driving or owning one.

[xander_g]

I wonder what the legal implications would be. ie caselaw

[RickFLM4]

One of Uber’s self driving vehicles hit and killed someone crossing the street in Arizona. There was a driver behind the wheel but it was in autonomous mode. Uber ceased their testing (at least temporarily).

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/19/tech...ash/index.html

[TrevorM3]

definitely not shocked, very unfortunate an innocent person had to lose her life.

[Maestro]

From what I saw it was bicyclist not a pedestrian, and from the looks of it the person hit the right front hood of the car, most likely their head.

You at least know the prime directive of that car, save the people in the car first, which is what you want, I do not think you would want to get in a car which may try in kill you to save some person on the street with a bike who knows what they may have been doing at time.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Maestro

From what I saw it was bicyclist not a pedestrian, and from the looks of it the person hit the right front hood of the car, most likely their head.

You at least know the prime directive of that car, save the people in the car first, which is what you want, I do not think you would want to get in a car which may try in kill you to save some person on the street with a bike who knows what they may have been doing at time.

The article indicates was a bicyclist but was walking her bike across the street when hit, hence a pedestrian when hit.

[Dog Face Pony Soldier]

Originally Posted by FC4

How many pedestrians were struck and killed today by traditional human-driven cars?

As a percentage of vehicles using each operator type, human-operated vehicles hit less pedestrians.

[Dog Face Pony Soldier]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

Will be interesting to see exactly what the hell happened.

Especially when you consider a real-live-human was also behind the wheel. That was/is the safeguard. What's his/her liabilities?

[RABAUKE]

Originally Posted by xander_g

I wonder what the legal implications would be. ie caselaw

This is going to be whole new territory.

[Dog Face Pony Soldier]

Originally Posted by NickyC

Autonomous vehicles are decades away from being a reality for most, I doubt they'll happen at all except for a few, very narrow purposes/situations.

Most of the hype is driven by Tesla and other car makers who are trying to stamp their hold on the future, and as we know Musk is full of bravado and broken promises.

Sure they've got to a certain point, but to make it main stream and acceptable as a form of transportation for all, they're far, far away from that point.

Also RIP to the victim here. Obviously a tragedy whether or not the car is to blame.

If we were smart we'd use autonomous trains first... then boats... then busses... then cabs. Instead, it appears as though we are jumping right to the most difficult medium! People do seem to understand the concerns when autonomous aircraft becomes part of the discussion.

[wdb]

I've been on automated trains. Years ago in fact.

And it wasn't a Tesla it was an Uber car, whatever they're using. EDIT: looks like Fords.

[Germanauto]

I'm not in the pro-autonomous car bandwagon but (a) we don't know all the circumstances and (b) I'm sure that statistically speaking self-driving cars cause fewer accidents/fatalities than human operated cars.

Media will blow this out of proportion as usual.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Germanauto

I'm not in the pro-autonomous car bandwagon but (a) we don't know all the circumstances and (b) I'm sure that statistically speaking self-driving cars cause fewer accidents/fatalities than human operated cars.

Media will blow this out of proportion as usual.

No doubt there is potential for it to get blown out of proportion. I think there are something like 5,000 pedestrians killed by cars per year. Of course, there are far more non-autonomous vehicles driving far more miles than autonomous vehicles but the fact remains pedestrians get killed by cars many times every day. Interesting to see Uber's reaction to this accident though.

I think the media works both ways, though. While autonomous vehicles have the potential to be far safer, they are really a work in process at this point - effectively using public roads for beta testing. I think the media makes it sound like they are closer to ready for prime time than they actually are. I also think it will be more difficult to integrate autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles than forcing everything to be autonomous. So aside from technology, I think there are many social, economic and infrastructure challenges that will take longer to solve than media would lead us to believe.

[Performancedieselpros]

Lady was walking across the street at 10pm in Arizona.... not even on a crosswalk.

Totally sounds like a common scenario lol! Not making light of it, and I hate automated cars, especially since this car that was involved had a live human driver beh ind the wheel. It was just in "autopilot".

So who's really at fault?????

[Germanauto]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

No doubt there is potential for it to get blown out of proportion. I think there are something like 5,000 pedestrians killed by cars per year. Of course, there are far more non-autonomous vehicles driving far more miles than autonomous vehicles but the fact remains pedestrians get killed by cars many times every day. Interesting to see Uber's reaction to this accident though.

I think the media works both ways, though. While autonomous vehicles have the potential to be far safer, they are really a work in process at this point - effectively using public roads for beta testing. I think the media makes it sound like they are closer to ready for prime time than they actually are. I also think it will be more difficult to integrate autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles than forcing everything to be autonomous. So aside from technology, I think there are many social, economic and infrastructure challenges that will take longer to solve than media would lead us to believe.

Very true. The media always wants to push change and this fits their narrative. The tech community also has a boner for this type of stuff so it goes hand-in-hand. I also wonder about how companies are allowed to legally beta test this stuff around civilians.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Performancedieselpros

Lady was walking across the street at 10pm in Arizona.... not even on a crosswalk.

Totally sounds like a common scenario lol! Not making light of it, and I hate automated cars, especially since this car that was involved had a live human driver beh ind the wheel. It was just in "autopilot".

So who's really at fault?????

Hard to tell without knowing full details, which will probably require a long investigation. If she stepped in front of a moving car without looking, well, she wasn't going to make it no matter what kind of car was there. If she was just jaywalking and the car didn't stop when it could, there was a malfunction involved.

[UncleWede]

Random trivia from a state I can't recall. The first 2 cars in that state were involved in head-on collision. This was before internet so didn't read it.

Maybe @sakhirM4 can confirm that he saw it happen