Posted on 09/02/2015 6:32:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google, a leader in efforts to create driverless cars, has run into an odd safety conundrum: humans.
Last month, as one of Google’s self-driving cars approached a crosswalk, it did what it was supposed to do when it slowed to allow a pedestrian to cross, prompting its “safety driver” to apply the brakes. The pedestrian was fine, but not so much Google’s car, which was hit from behind by a human-driven sedan.
Google’s fleet of autonomous test cars is programmed to follow the letter of the law. But it can be tough to get around if you are a stickler for the rules. One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn’t get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other (human) drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward, looking for the advantage — paralyzing Google’s robot.
It is not just a Google issue. Researchers in the fledgling field of autonomous vehicles say that one of the biggest challenges facing automated cars is blending them into a world in which humans don’t behave by the book. “The real problem is that the car is too safe,” said Donald Norman, director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, who studies autonomous vehicles.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And it better be a good one ;)
You can’t solve everything with a roundabout.
Makes me appreciate driving a sports car so much more.
Someday the grandkids will say “you drove that fast on this twisty road BY HAND??”
A roundabout (ROTARY to us New Englanders), if you learn it can be a smooth experience, especially if you're at that particular time during rush hour that real drivers are present on the road .... there's a sense of accomplishment driving a half hour drive in a half an hour (or slightly less) with no assholes to deal with
That same half hour extended to 45 or 50 minutes because of assholes is another matter.
That looks like my computer mouse.
I took my 24 year old son to Carmel for the Tour d’Elegance a couple weeks ago and we were prognosticating a future just like that. He drives an old 911 and neither of us like that vision of the future much.
That’s the latest Google self-driving car being seen in Mountain View now. Butt ugly, huh? And not much bigger than your computer mouse, either.
Give it winter driving and sudden animal appearances.
If these driverless cars are not programmed to violate the law on occasion in reaction to dangerous situations then they will be the real cause, if not the legal cause of many accidents. Insurance costs will ultimately reflect that.
RE: f these driverless cars are not programmed to violate the law on occasion in reaction to dangerous situations then they will be the real cause, if not the legal cause of many accidents
We have lots of red light cameras in Long Island today ( we call them PENSION cameras because they help to pay the fat pensions of county government retirees).
My friend stopped at a red light once but there was a fire truck behind him with sirens blaring. He had no choice but to go pass the red light to allow the fire truck to pass.
Well guess what, HE WAS TICKETED anyway. He went to court to dispute it with his explanation and was told by the judge to go to the Nassau Fire Department to get proof that a fire truck was indeed dispatched at the time the violation occurred.
I wonder of these driverless cars are programmed to do what my friend did....
Turn the stupid, intrusive thing OFF.
Your friend should have demanded the recording from that camera. It would hav shown the fire truck.
So the software will stop the vehicle for a human in a cross walk...regardless of the status of the traffic light? Stop for a jaywalker when the car has the green light? Yah...makes perfect sense.
#3 In California, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, and Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, have proposed a bill to raise gas prices and ration gas by 50%
Proposed SB 350 – The Gasoline Restriction Act of 2015
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/opinion/localopinioncolumnists/senate-bill-350-a-highway-that-goes-wrong-way/
Cue “Red Barchetta”.
So what’s your alternative? Run them down?
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