Self-driving Uber car kills Arizona pedestrian

[Okeefenokee]

In 2015, 5,376 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States.1 This averages to one crash-related pedestrian death every 1.6 hours.

Additionally, almost 129,000 pedestrians were treated in emergency departments for non-fatal crash-related injuries in 2015.

[Speaker to Animals]

You have cars driving around with autopilot systems developed by some pajeet for 60k per year, without the kind of quality control and process improvements that go into a comparable system for an aircraft or a rocket.

This is fucking stupid, Okee.

Ask yourself if you would want to fly in an aircraft where the avionics were developed by some H1B asshole by something like Uber, without any real process and quality control, and with the same kind of testing that went into these Uber cars.

The answer should be a strict FUCK THAT.

[Okeefenokee]

It's happening whether you like it or not.

[Hastur]

I'm not sure I would have had the time to react either. That was an incredibly stupid place to cross the road. Totally dark and no reflexes. I wonder if the automatic brakes failed or if they don't work at that speed if something appears from an angle like that. Will try to see if I can get some information from Volvo. We are usually pretty concerned about that kind of collisions over here giving all the stupid moose running about so I assume Volvo would do their best to try to mitigate that sort of risk. They are on the other hand often more on the passive security side so it's totally possible that the thinking is that hitting the moose with a car that is constructed to protect the passengers is safer than trying some kind of automated evasive maneuver. There was obviously no time to break.

[Haumana]

If the human driver in the driver seat is just sitting there checking their phone while the self-driving car runs people over, I gotta ask ... what’s the point of having the human in the car?

Will Uber pay me to not be liable for their vehicular manslaughter too? I’m on my phone right now. I’ll check it all day. Cut me a check plz.

I hope this hasn't been said already but Chris Farley, is that you????

[Smitty-48]

Multi lane expressway, no pedestrian crossing; the pedestrian is at fault, manually operated or self driving, either way, "death by misadventure", good kill.

The public menace would be the clown playing in traffic rolling at highway speeds, not the vehicle on the highway following the rules.

You're pushing your bicycle across a multi lane expressway, at night, and you get hit? Unless you're a child, you got no excuse for that, that's self inflicted Darwinian selection.

Frankly, encountering something like that, point blank at highway speeds; it's actually safer for all if you don't slam on the brakes or swerve, because that's how pile ups happen, I would actually program the self driving car to prioritize the safety of the law abiding in that case, and just run them down as necessary.

Seems like just another case of the media trying to fabricate a "victim" story out of some reckless buffoon who brought righteous doom down upon their own head; don't jay walk on multi lane expressways at night, who knew? /shrugs

[de officiis]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-auto ... SKBN1H5092

The family of a woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle.

Cristina Perez Hesano, an attorney with the firm of Bellah Perez in Glendale, Arizona, said “the matter has been resolved” between Uber and the daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died after being hit by an Uber self-driving SUV while walking across a street in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe earlier this month.

Terms of the settlement were not given. The law firm representing Herzberg’s daughter and husband, whose names were not disclosed, said they would have no further comment on the matter as they considered it resolved.

An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment.

Well, that didn't take very long. Wonder how much they shelled out. My guess is, we're unlikely to know.

[Fife]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-auto ... SKBN1H5092

The family of a woman killed by an Uber Technologies Inc self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, ending a potential legal battle over the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle.

Cristina Perez Hesano, an attorney with the firm of Bellah Perez in Glendale, Arizona, said “the matter has been resolved” between Uber and the daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died after being hit by an Uber self-driving SUV while walking across a street in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe earlier this month.

Terms of the settlement were not given. The law firm representing Herzberg’s daughter and husband, whose names were not disclosed, said they would have no further comment on the matter as they considered it resolved.

An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment.

Well, that didn't take very long. Wonder how much they shelled out. My guess is, we're unlikely to know.

We are virtually certain not to know. How else would they have bought this thing off so early?

You gotta love those mediation sessions that get scheduled immediately after the loss, and before anything gets filed, where some stuffed suit shows up with the company and insurance lawyers carrying a briefcase. That briefcase has locks, and contains a checkbook inside. Every time.

Ring-a-ding-ding!!

[DrYouth]

I would actually program the self driving car to prioritize the safety of the law abiding in that case, and just run them down as necessary.

When it comes right down to it...

This is correct.

I wonder if they could create an algo to determine the breaking distance of the car behind to calculate the odds of the break vs no (or partial) break scenario.
I mean law abiding or not... it's the ultimate trolly scenario at high speeds on a highway...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem
And utilitarian calculations are where the bots have us beat... factoring in personal responsibility might somehow even make it in to the algo somewhere... child vs adult perhaps... who know....
I wonder if the speed of the processor has to be taken into account at some level when adding factors to the calculation.

[Speaker to Animals]

I would actually program the self driving car to prioritize the safety of the law abiding in that case, and just run them down as necessary.

When it comes right down to it...

This is correct.

I wonder if they could create an algo to determine the breaking distance of the car behind to calculate the odds of the break vs no (or partial) break scenario.
I mean law abiding or not... it's the ultimate trolly scenario at high speeds on a highway...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem
And utilitarian calculations are where the bots have us beat... factoring in personal responsibility might somehow even make it in to the algo somewhere... child vs adult perhaps... who know....
I wonder if the speed of the processor has to be taken into account at some level when adding factors to the calculation.

It depends upon the architecture they use. I very much doubt these vehicle autopilot systems are running with a top-level rule-based system like that, which can incorporate various ethical rules into decision-making. It's almost certainly rule-based, but very rudimentary.

If I were to architect it, the top-level would run on something like CLIPS, since that is very well-developed and stable after so much development for planetary robotics. Underneath you still need pattern recognition capabilities best implemented with some kind of deep learning technique. Same with controls.

The problem in all of this is the amount of engineering necessary to actually make it safe, as well as the enormous amount of testing that should be required. Developing something like this should be at least as expensive and thorough as developing avionics software since the risks are actually far higher than with aircraft.

But I guarantee that doesn't happen.

Nor is this going to be regulated properly.