Driverless travel

[Randy W]

I can see them develop into unmanned delivery vehicles, both locally and for shipping on the interstates, and even driverless taxis on dedicated routes.

Infrastructure can be developed to support these vehicles, such as lane markings, or fixed localized stations which broadcast nearby traffic conditions.

But to replace a human driver with a computer that needs to be able to handle a virtually unlimited spectrum of circumstances seems to me to be an unachievable task.

The thought of some kid sitting at his desk writing software which might be used to drive my car 5 years from now just doesn't seem tenable.

[Randy W]

That "kid sitting at his desk writing software" will NOT be allowed to drive MY car. (although I might purchase the Autopilot option with a Tesla if it were priced reasonably).

A little bit of chaos from a Full self-driving beta installation

 

 

[Randy W]

A case of an actual driverless car - there were two passengers, "One was in the front passenger seat and one in the rear seat", and no one in the driver's seat.

2 Killed in Driverless Tesla Car Crash, Officials Say
“No one was driving the vehicle” when the car crashed and burst into flames, killing two men, a constable said.

The men killed in the crash said just before they left that they wanted to go for a drive and were talking about the vehicle’s driverless features, an official said.Credit...KTRK-TV - ABC13
 

Quote

 

“It took four hours to put out a fire that normally would have taken a matter of minutes,” Constable Herman said, adding that it took more than 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire.

 . . .

Mitchell Weston, chief investigator at the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, said that while the batteries are “generally safe,” impacts at high speeds can result in “thermal runaway,” which causes an “uncontrolled contact” between different materials in the batteries.

 

 

[Randy W]

The first driverless delivery car runs in Chengdu, Sichuan province, providing convenience to the residents of the community affected by the coronavirus

from China Highlights on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaHighlights/posts/10159332910942964

[Randy W]

On 5/25/2018 at 5:07 PM, Randy W said:

You drive the car. No, YOU drive the car.

 

No one's even bothered to come up with a driver's test for these things.

 

from Bloomberg

 

Uber Self-Driving Car in Crash Wasn't Programmed to Brake

 

 

 

A self-driving Uber killed a woman. The backup driver has pleaded guilty.
Rafaela Vasquez was at the wheel of the self-driving Volvo SUV when it struck and killed a pedestrian

from the Washington Post, dated July 31, 2023 at 11:52 p.m. EDT

Rafaela Vasquez, right, speaks with her attorney Albert Jaynes Morrison at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix on Friday. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)

Quote

 

In the aftermath of the incident, scrutiny mounted on Uber’s decision to field the modified vehicle. It also fell on Vasquez, the vehicle’s assigned safety driver, who was responsible for intervening in an emergency while the technology was being tested. Before the crash, Vasquez looked down, and she was streaming the reality show “The Voice” on her smartphone before the collision, Tempe police said.

Vasquez pleaded guilty to endangerment — a lesser offense than the negligent homicide charge she originally faced after being indicted in 2020 — and will serve three years of supervised probation for her role in the crash, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement that the sentence was appropriate.

“Getting behind the wheel of a car is a serious responsibility,” Mitchell said. “Regardless of whatever technology might be available to drivers, safety for everyone on the street and in the vehicle must always be a driver’s first priority.”

 

The whole problem with using an autonomous driving system to replace a human driver is that the human is lulled into complacency.

"Vasquez took control of the steering wheel less than a second before it struck Herzberg and only began braking 0.7 seconds after the collision, it states.

The investigation found that the probable cause of the crash was Vasquez’s failure to monitor the self-driving car’s environment while she was distracted by her phone. But it also accused Uber of contributing to the crash by operating with an “inadequate safety culture” and failing to properly oversee its safety drivers.

Uber’s automated driving system failed to classify Herzberg as a pedestrian because she was crossing in an area without a crosswalk, according to the NTSB. Uber’s modifications to the Volvo also gutted some of the vehicle’s safety features, including an automatic emergency braking feature that might have been able to save Herzberg’s life, investigators wrote."

Edited August 1, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

That kid sitting at his desk writing software which might be used to drive your car 5 years from now just hasn't yet really thought of EVRYTHING he needs to think about.

California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy

San Francisco has served as a testing ground for autonomous vehicles made by the companies Waymo (pictured above) and Cruise.

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San Francisco's police and fire departments have urged the CPUC to oppose the expansion – they say they've tallied 55 incidents where self-driving cars have got in the way of rescue operations in just the last six months. The incidents include running through yellow emergency tape, blocking firehouse driveways and refusing to move for first responders.

 . . .

Now, with Thursday's vote, the companies can charge customers for rides in cars without a human driver at all hours of the day. Previously they were only allowed to carry passengers on a limited basis.

The companies say driverless vehicles are safer than human-driven ones when it comes to passenger safety. They maintain none of the incidents cited by the fire and police departments have resulted in passenger injury.

 

 

[Randy W]

"Artificial Intelligence" is not intelligence at all.
The "cone of shame"

[Randy W]

 

 

[Randy W]

SFO rebuffs Waymo — SF ‘guerilla warfare’ vs. robotaxis heats up

from Mission Local

Quote

 

The company voluntarily grounded all of its self-driving cars, worldwide, last month. That came on the heels of the state stepping in and doing that for them here in California, following an early October incident in which a Cruise autonomous vehicle did not detect that it had stopped on top of a pedestrian who’d been struck by a hit-and-run driver. It subsequently attempted to pull over, and dragged her 20 feet.

Cruise, which is losing some $263 million every month, wanted to move things faster, and now it must move them slower. It wanted to vastly expand its driverless fleet in San Francisco, and now it cannot. It even wanted to sublimate itself into the city’s DNA by slapping a gaudy Cruise patch on every San Francisco Giant’s left shoulder. Let the record show that the home team was 61-49 on Aug. 3 when those patches were sewed on — and finished the year on an 18-34 slide. All of this happened, more or less. 

But Cruise is not the only robotaxi outfit in San Francisco. In this city, big money-backed tech disruptors tend to come in bunches. And rival companies tend to assume the Betty and Veronica roles of “good” outfit and “bad” outfit. Think Lyft and Uber, or Spin and Bird. Now, we have Waymo and Cruise. 

Having talked to a number of San Francisco public safety officials, they’re not thrilled with Waymo — but it’s hard to overstate the disdain they express for Cruise. The company’s people have not ingratiated themselves with the officials leading and overseeing the city they’ve chosen to blanket. And neither have its vehicles; of the 90-odd incidents in which autonomous vehicles interfered in emergency scenes, thus far compiled by the fire department, we are told some two-thirds involve Cruise vehicles. That tracks: Of the 55 initial recorded incidents Mission Local published in August, 34 involved Cruise vehicles, 18 involved Waymos and three aren’t clear.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Riding In A Waymo Fully Autonomous Car

We hitched a ride across San Francisco in a fully autonomous car!

from Supercar Blondie on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/supercarblondie/videos/6749093805167096/

This may have been filmed BEFORE they were "grounded worldwide"

[Randy W]

Are driverless cars safe? At least in NYC

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/MybSqaeyS5iJcsdq/?mibextid=oFDknk

 

 

Edited February 27 by Randy W (see edit history)