Self Driving Cars? Right Oh!

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39397211
More carnage! No fatalities, this time!

[Samjenko]

Happened because a car with a driver ran into it. Go figure.

[hc4361]

From your link:

"There was a person behind the wheel. It is uncertain at this time if they were controlling the vehicle at the time of the collision," spokeswoman Josie Montenegro said.

[ToraToraTora]

"A spokeswoman for the police in Tempe, Arizona said the accident occurred when another vehicle "failed to yield" to the Uber car at a left turn." - welcome to real world driving. Oh Dear! Clearly the programming needs to understand that Humans do not always obey the rules.

[hc4361]

Still not clear whether or not it was being driven at the time

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds like the humans need to be taken off the road.

[Samjenko]

If that's the case, the quicker they eliminate human drivers the better. Well worked out 3Ts.

[jno]

I can't see how this would have been any different if the other car had hit a car with a driver rather than a self-driving one?

The problem wasn't the Uber car.

[Zacs-Master]

wonder what the percentage of accidents involving driverless cars is against those with drivers?

[jno]

presumably bad drivers don't care what sort of car they hit, ZM.

[Zacs-Master]

Probably not.

[ToraToraTora]

samjenko, perhaps, but the interim, carnage.

jno, when someone fails to give way an accident is avoided most of the time by human drivers. So it's pretty like this was under autonomy and simple hadn't been programmed that other vehicles won't necessarily give way when they should. Back to the drawing board!

[EDDIE51]

As I and others said a while back, the problems will be while there are self driving and human driven cars on the road at the same time.
Once all cars are self driving accidents will be virtually unknown.

[hc4361]

And traffic jams will be virtually unknown. Can't wait for self driving cars to be the norm

[ToraToraTora]

Eddie, so for this to work they will, at some point, have to ban all human controlled traffic? Good luck getting that through! No motorcycles, no cyclists no pedestrians, all the roads would have to become fenced off conduits. Ain't ever going to happen!

[mushroom25]

I don't know how old you are HC but unless you're under 30 you probably won't live to see an all-driverless road system. what you are likely to see is motorways used only by vehicles fitted with autonomous technology - the legislation framework already exists to make this happen and the technology isn't far away.

[mikey4444]

This is complete lunacy.

[Old_Geezer]

It can't be that difficult to ensure an emerging situation is monitored as it arises, and react accordingly. What is difficult is to understand that, that wasn't a basic part of the Uber design from the off.

However the article isn't clear on the exact details so maybe the design does have it already and the fault was totally with the driver of the other car, who not only made an error but failed to take corrective action. In which case there would be little the Uber car could have done, and the fact that it was self driving is not relevant.

The article needs a lot more detail before we can form a decent opinion.

[RATTER15]

From what I have seen and read on the subject, driverless cars will never be totally foolproof and they will be involved in accidents but it appears there will be fewer accidents and less fatalities and serious accidents. According to current research.

[vulcan42]

I wonder who gives way when a vehicle designed to drive on the left meets a vehicle designed to drive on the right?

[TWR]

Fog, Snow, Ice, Hazards, Road Debris, Scully & the Hudson? Driverless cars!!