Uber Admits To Self-Driving Car 'Problem' In Bike Lanes

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An Uber spokesperson told The Guardian that it is working to fix an issue in the car’s programming that causes the vehicles to make an “unsafe right-hook-style turn through a bike lane.” No ETA was given for a fix.

An Uber spokeswoman said on Monday that engineers were working to fix a flaw in the programming that advocates feared could have deadly consequences for cyclists. Uber began piloting its self-driving vehicles in its home town of San Francisco last week, despite state officials’ declaration that the ride-share company needed special permits to test its technology. On day one, numerous autonomous vehicles – which have a driver in the front seat who can take control – were caught running red lights and committing a range of traffic violations.
 
hahaha, yeah SF is definitely a different city than most. Bike lanes that normally aren't found. Random stops in the middle of a street with no cross traffic (probably why the red light issues). All you need next is it driving the wrong way on a street and you're set!

I do question the point of self driving cars from Uber, seems their business model of "let the driver pay for everything except the app service and we'll take a piece of all their profit" is a really good one. Now self driving cars? Do they really want to get into that market? Or is this just a thinly veiled attempt at advertising?
 
How are they still testing their cars on public roads with all these issues? What happens when someone gets injured, maimed, or killed? I'm all for innovators over bureaucrats, but this seems reckless.
 
Every bike lane I've come across has been poorly designed and look like they are for bikers with death wishes.
 
Pretty much like every other driver who isn't used to driving in a city then.

To normal, non-city drivers, looking behind yourself and to the right, before making a right turn, is completely counter-intuitive, and it is not difficult to understand why this causes so many accidents with bicycles in cities. It takes a LOT of practice to train oneself to remember to look in such a counter-intuitive place before turning, and most people never have to do it, because they never drive in cities.
 
On day one, numerous autonomous vehicles – were caught running red lights and committing a range of traffic violations.

I don't see what the problem is, it sounds like their AI already drives as bad as the typical Bay area driver.
 
How are they still testing their cars on public roads with all these issues? What happens when someone gets injured, maimed, or killed? I'm all for innovators over bureaucrats, but this seems reckless.
Because its just that, testing. They have a professionally trained driver sitting in the driver's seat ready to take over at a moment's notice, and logging any problems.

I'm pretty sure they surpassed "stereotypical older fresh-off-the-boat Chinese lady" level on day 3, and by now are probably better than 60% of drivers.
 
I do question the point of self driving cars from Uber, seems their business model of "let the driver pay for everything except the app service and we'll take a piece of all their profit" is a really good one. Now self driving cars? Do they really want to get into that market? Or is this just a thinly veiled attempt at advertising?

There is an extra level of cost to Uber for driver owned cars that we don't see. There is all the lawsuits from drivers wanting benefits and other such things (cost of lawsuits + extra costs Uber has to pay for drivers), insurance for Uber for passenger related complaints about drivers, etc. I believe Uber only makes 20% of the total fare. If there is no driver Uber makes all of it.

I'm sure someone has crunched the numbers and shown a possible cost savings/higher earnings for moving to "no drivers", which is why Uber is investigating it in the first place.
 
How are they still testing their cars on public roads with all these issues? What happens when someone gets injured, maimed, or killed? I'm all for innovators over bureaucrats, but this seems reckless.

It's called a "corner case".

Look, I'm a SW Engineer, and let's face it, there's always those few roads that use non-standard lane marking, extra markings before crossings, and other issues that will not be handled by software. That's why I don't really view self-driving tech as going anywhere in the short term. At most, we'll see it on highways/interstates, but not for local roads. There's also the legal side of things, or more specifically, who is held liable. And so far, the courts are basically saying its the manufactures. And you think car companies will put something in their cars that could have them financially liable every single time it screws up? Not likely. We'll get lane keeping when all is said and done, and that's that.
 
Because its just that, testing. They have a professionally trained driver sitting in the driver's seat ready to take over at a moment's notice, and logging any problems.

I'm pretty sure they surpassed "stereotypical older fresh-off-the-boat Chinese lady" level on day 3, and by now are probably better than 60% of drivers.
The drivers didn't react fast enough to prevent any of the faults mentioned. That's not good enough for a company flouting the law, IMO. I wouldn't want to be sharing the road with any of these experiments no less having one barreling at me as a pedestrian without any input on the matter.

It's called a "corner case".

Look, I'm a SW Engineer, and let's face it, there's always those few roads that use non-standard lane marking, extra markings before crossings, and other issues that will not be handled by software. That's why I don't really view self-driving tech as going anywhere in the short term. At most, we'll see it on highways/interstates, but not for local roads. There's also the legal side of things, or more specifically, who is held liable. And so far, the courts are basically saying its the manufactures. And you think car companies will put something in their cars that could have them financially liable every single time it screws up? Not likely. We'll get lane keeping when all is said and done, and that's that.
I know why the issues can happen, it's why Uber feels like they could give a damn about the consequences that concerns me. They're a glorified ride-sharing company for fuck's sake.
 
They're a glorified ride-sharing company for fuck's sake.
For now, but with car automation, it seems they see that's not the future.

In the future, I imagine that they would own their own fleet of vehicles, and use their brand name recognition and convenient smartphone integration to have automated cars pick you up.

That would be pretty damn convenient, like calling an elevator and it shows you all the empty vehicles in the area and shows the called one on its way to you with an ETR provided by the navigation system. Would be pretty awesome, and can potentially be so convenient and inexpensive that most people wouldn't bother with the expense of purchasing, storing, insuring, and maintaining a personal car when they can just take automated ubers around.

And that's more efficient use of resources anyway, to have a warmed up car in use 24x7 to ferry people around, than everyone having their own car that sits around depreciating most of the time.
 
For now, but with car automation, it seems they see that's not the future.

In the future, I imagine that they would own their own fleet of vehicles, and use their brand name recognition and convenient smartphone integration to have automated cars pick you up.

That would be pretty damn convenient, like calling an elevator and it shows you all the empty vehicles in the area and shows the called one on its way to you with an ETR provided by the navigation system. Would be pretty awesome, and can potentially be so convenient and inexpensive that most people wouldn't bother with the expense of purchasing, storing, insuring, and maintaining a personal car when they can just take automated ubers around.

And that's more efficient use of resources anyway, to have a warmed up car in use 24x7 to ferry people around, than everyone having their own car that sits around depreciating most of the time.
That's good and all, and I appreciate their vision, but if I lived in that city, I wouldn't want to be the human guinea pig they're using to test their sensor suite on. What can you do, I guess. Unless someone gets run down who's to stop them.
 
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