Just checked and you are right. I’m referring to ANOTHER Volvo incident where a test car goes into the back of a parked lorry. In that one, the driver hadn’t switched the system on.
True, but it was simple to do and inexpensive. We have forgotten how to do this stuff and the makers of modern vehicles don't want us to do it. They want us to throw them away and buy new ones and we have blithely gone along with the throwaway culture.
Do they need to be 100% safe? People die in people controlled cars all the time but we don't really question if we should ban them... Surely if they are even 10% safer than normal cars, its still an improvement? I do understand that letting software be responsible for those deaths (even if fewer of them) is still pretty creepy though. I'm looking forward to driverless tech. For those who see cars as just a necessary evil, for getting from A-B or an interruption to valuable instagramming time, I think maybe it's a good idea they don't have to have hold of the wheel. Even a half baked digital driver is probably going to be better. I like the idea of cars that make it very clear when the computer is in control. We've spent years learning how to predict human drivers behavior. Chances are once we've learnt how one Google car reacts, we'll be able to apply that to the rest. Insurance will be interesting though. Will I be claiming against Apple or the driver following an accident? I don't fancy my chances in court against their battalions of legal experts.
AV’s are safe and used in many sectors without incident. Safety issues arise when non logic based units are permitted to interact with them within the same space i.e. humans. If you watch the video of the accident you’ll see it’s potentally doubtful a non AV human operated vehicle would have stopped in the 3 seconds the unfortunate person was visible. Should it be scrapped? Many people only see technology at a fixed point, where it is at today, and can’t see the multitude of evolutionary threads a play which are continually driving progress, you’ll never believe the systems will improve to the point where it’s entirely obvious AVs were inevitable, until they’re upon us. The issues AVs face are far from intractable, they come down data capture, processing and decision making. There’s far to much money invested by smart people on even smarter people. Ubers long game is in AV, which is taking along vehicle manufactures, silicon vendors and other technology providers. Within 10 years we’ll see fleets of AVs on the road.
Even as a sceptic, who mostly enjoys my 40k miles pa driving, there are days I'd love to jump in the back, have a nap or host a call. I love the tech. I love the idea of it. And I love that it pushes boundaries further and further. What scares me is: who controls how its designed, how its used, how its managed, and most importantly who owns the propriety hardware it all runs on. Oh ands that in 3 generations time, the west will be full of non-working humans with nothing too do.
Mass automation is coming/already happening regardless. The steam engine and the mechanical loom destroyed huge numbers of human jobs... new jobs appeared. In fact, the last time this happened in such a dramatic way, the British Empire did quite well out of it. It's just that this time round, Silicon Valley and increasingly the Chinese look set to embrace it fully. It won't just be the West. If anything, developing nations have an advantage over us, no legacy technology/sentiment to hold them back. Our roads are based on a network designed for horses and carts FFS. No wonder self driving cars struggle... It isn't automation that scares me, what scares me is that people think it's not already happening. The fact that programming/coding/software development isn't part of the basic school curriculum shows the staggering lack of foresight that's going to be the real issue.
The difference is, humans built these things. Then, once the building was automated, they designed the priests and support services to deliver those things. As soon as it can design itself, build itself, delivery itself, whats left? OK, so it sounds a bit sci-fi, but we are now in a sci-fi world
Who do you think creates these automated systems? Who do you think designs and refines the machines that themselves make other machines? The future isn't bleak, it's just different. I'm a DevOps/Operations Engineer, I spend all day watching automated systems, designed by geniuses, falling over and butting up against each other. My employer really struggles find enough people to help develop and maintain this stuff... As some industries decline, others rise. I wouldn't advise anyone start training as a truck driver sure but humans are still in really high demand.
The ultimate point of AI is that it can self-diagnose, self-repair and , crucially, learn and evolve. This is on the same moral plane as producing made to measure babies. There should be the same checks and balances in place. I have plenty f experience of devops, and (being generalist) there focus is the problem to hand and not the wider impact. Of the number of rimes I have had to defend a fix deployed that broke more than it repaired
I think we’re a good while off true AI being part of our lives. I actually think level 6 autonomous cars are quite a bit further off than we’ve been led to believe. There’s a reason the likes of Volvo have pushed back all their driverless timelines. To speed up the process, I think governments will need to be involved with adapting the road infrastructure and since they don’t even spend enough to keep it functional and safe for humans, I can’t see money being poured into it to help autonomous cars out. In the mean time, we’re going to have an interesting period of semi-autonomous driving.
In the bold/italic/underlined section above is this meant as a question, i.e. "if you were presented with the statistics that...?" or are you making statement, "...the statistics that..."? Pedantic yet fundamental question really, as I fail to believe that self-driven cars have fewer accidents/fatalities per driven mile/km due to the fact that most self-driven cars are only driven in sanitised test conditions. Should they be let loose to find their way around any city/town/suburb/village I have a feeling that mayhem would ensue. Imagine, for instance, that narrow side street with cars parked either side and uber self drive is coming one way and jonny pikey the other in his souped up BMW 316 compact, or sending one off on the road from Delhi to Jaipur. given they have a driver onboard, and can only negotiate specific, sanitised routes, then what is the point of them right now? a taxi does the same job but can go on routes that the self-drive can't. Until a mass-switch from driven to driverless occurs, then the two concepts are like oil & water. Pete
So future cities could have pedestrians walking across roads where they choose without even a glance, knowing that the automated vehicles will emergency brake/avoid them? This pedestrian looked to have made a fatal mistake and not sure anyone would have seen her unlit in the dark, though perhaps hard to judge from the video. The Volvo emergency braking could have helped but this system was disabled and the Uber superior detection equipment clearly had a malfunction (software?). There was no slowing or steering action before fatally hitting the pedestrian. All round bad news for Uber as the driver was a convicted criminal (armed robbery). I am not personally a fan of driverless vehicles but I guess they are inevitable (nearly said unavoidable ). I do though appreciate my own cars active cruise control with auto handbrake. Stop starting in heavy traffic is now so less stressful when all I have to do is steer. Glad we are all of a generation that ride/drive proper vehicles and the future does look rather dull. Here's a question for the Uber software engineer; Another vehicle comes across the road at speed and will cause a head on fatal collision with the Uber automated vehicle. The only possible avoiding action would result in driving onto the pavement where two lifeforms are detected. What action will the Uber car take? How will the insurance industry handle this dilemma?
The thing that worried me about the actual fatality was the car used was the latest Volvo XC90 which I understand has pilot assist, 360 camera's, distance alert etc. What seems to have happened is that all the volvo safety devices were switched off, if that is the case, I wonder why?
As my post above; the Volvo system (Activ/Mobileye) was disabled and it was all down to the Uber equipmant failure. Volvo system (very good!) in the clear.
I think Gimlet posted earlier on this, and is right. You will only cross at certain points, just like rail tracks, or face big consequences. With so much cctv, I am amazed the govt and plod haven’t picked up that that could easily fine loads of people for jaywalking and change the law to allow it. We’ll all be microchipped from birth in te next two generations anyway, so it will be easy to trace you. “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide”
