Accident Would Shut Down Google's Driverless Car Experiment

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Holy cow, this article is packed full of awesome quotes like "experts say people won't tolerate machines killing humans." Oh yeah, the article says running over babies would be bad too :D

"There's been all this public outcry about [drones], but the Google car has slipped in under the radar," Missy Cummings, a former fighter pilot turned MIT drone researcher said Tuesday. "You're more likely to be run over by the Google car far before a [drone] would ever fall on your head."
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More likely to be run over by a human driver than a robotic one.

She probably wrote this article on her cell phone while drinking a big gulp and driving her car with her knees.
 
I'd be more worried about a drone killing me with a missile strike, than falling on my head
 
i find it funny just thinking about the google car running over people
 
Well, driverless cars would have to be much much safer than people for them to be practical. I think if they were only slightly safer, it wouldn't really take off.

Personally, you can aren't going to replace any of my cars with driverless cars, you can take my classic cars away from me when you pry my cold dead corpse from the driver's seat.
 
and then a drone over head armed with a hellfire missle takes out the google car and kills people on the side street causing acceptable collateral.
 
Have you driven out in the world lately? Driverless cards are more than likely better drivers than 95% of everyone out there
 
Klrgoten said:
Have you driven out in the world lately? Driverless cards are more than likely better drivers than 95% of everyone out there
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If you go somewhere other than the US, like Europe, you realize that not everyone sucks at driving. The US just has the biggest joke of a license test, a monkey could probably pass. Also people don't understand how 4 way stop signs work, although the concept of a 4 way stop sign is almost as idiotic as the drivers. /rant.
 
Klrgoten said:
Have you driven out in the world lately? Driverless cards are more than likely better drivers than 95% of everyone out there
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xIronCrossx said:
If you go somewhere other than the US, like Europe, you realize that not everyone sucks at driving. The US just has the biggest joke of a license test, a monkey could probably pass. Also people don't understand how 4 way stop signs work, although the concept of a 4 way stop sign is almost as idiotic as the drivers. /rant.
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You guys can't be serious. The US is probably one of the better countries when it comes to driving.
 
xIronCrossx said:
If you go somewhere other than the US, like Europe, you realize that not everyone sucks at driving. The US just has the biggest joke of a license test, a monkey could probably pass. Also people don't understand how 4 way stop signs work, although the concept of a 4 way stop sign is almost as idiotic as the drivers. /rant.
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I don't think the road planners in the US have heard of a yield sign or understand it's use, there's stop signs fucking everywhere that should be replaced with yield signs. I pass through 11 stop signs on my way to work, only a couple of them actually need to be there.

I'm not sure if american drivers are worse or just more selfish, no where else have I had to brake to avoid hitting someone as often as I need to in the US (I mean someone pulling out in front of me or cutting me off when they should be giving way).
 
Tudz said:
Well, driverless cars would have to be much much safer than people for them to be practical. I think if they were only slightly safer, it wouldn't really take off.

Personally, you can aren't going to replace any of my cars with driverless cars, you can take my classic cars away from me when you pry my cold dead corpse from the driver's seat.
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I got news for you, there will come a day when it will cost too much money in insurance to self-drive. There will eventually be roads where it will be illegal to self-drive. Make no mistake, automated cars are coming and human-driven cars will someday be made illegal to operate on public streets. 60,000 people die every year from human driven cars, with those numbers, im willing to give the robots a chance.
 
xIronCrossx said:
If you go somewhere other than the US, like Europe, you realize that not everyone sucks at driving. The US just has the biggest joke of a license test, a monkey could probably pass. Also people don't understand how 4 way stop signs work, although the concept of a 4 way stop sign is almost as idiotic as the drivers. /rant.
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Have you driven in Asia? ... USA is nursery school compared to that ... I have driven in the USA, Thailand, Malaysia, and Ireland ... I briefly thought about driving in the Philippines but I consider that a sign that it is time for you to repatriate back to the States as you have been across the pond too long :D

One advantage of the driverless cars is that they would have more consistent performance with traffic rules ... they could also have sensors to adjust speed or programs if they sense pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists in close proximity ... they would also prevent the most common traffic infractions (following too closely, failure to yield, speeding, and running a traffic signal) :cool:
 
Tudz said:
Better than 3rd world countries perhaps.
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We're like 10 times better than India and China, which most people in the world live. I don't know about Europe, but we're not as bad as you all make it out to be. Atleast not in the midwest.
 
PornoSatan said:
We're like 10 times better than India and China, which most people in the world live. I don't know about Europe, but we're not as bad as you all make it out to be. Atleast not in the midwest.
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Probably just the east coast. Then again people in Paris and Italy aren't great drivers either(they are actually just assholes, would not want to drive there).
 
Spire3660 said:
I got news for you, there will come a day when it will cost too much money in insurance to self-drive. There will eventually be roads where it will be illegal to self-drive. Make no mistake, automated cars are coming and human-driven cars will someday be made illegal to operate on public streets. 60,000 people die every year from human driven cars, with those numbers, im willing to give the robots a chance.
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As long as I'm dead by then I don't care :p
Quicksilver_ said:
Australians are the worst drivers. We can't even merge properly.
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I'm yet to drive in a place where the general population can merge properly. You get some people who can merge properly and then a whole bunch of people who can't.

One thing Australians suck at is keeping left unless overtaking, but that's more annoying rather than dangerous.
 
Tudz said:
Well, driverless cars would have to be much much safer than people for them to be practical. I think if they were only slightly safer, it wouldn't really take off.
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I disagree respectfully in that even if it had equal safety, I'd probably buy one for the convenience. I had to communite 45 minutes one-way to reach my university. On test-days or exam days, I would have loved to use those 45 minutes to review. Heck, if I could have done nothing but review for 45 minutes a day, the previous week or days material, I'm sure it would have reflected in my grades. Even 45 minutes of sleep or watching a tv show would be nice for relaxation/stress level.
 
bsoft said:
Per mile/km, US drivers are safer than drivers in much of Europe and reasonably similar to Germany, which is the country that I often hear cited as having "much better drivers" than the US.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
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You have to keep things in perspective though. Americans drive significantly more on open highways (at least compared to countries I've been to), so should have lower accidents per mile driven. If you have one accident per hour, the average American would have traveled significantly more distance in that hour.

Of course, accidents at higher speed are more likely to cause death, so the truth actually lies somewhere in the middle.

Even though Australia has a low population density, the country is more centralised and as such you find yourself driving within cities more often. That's why the US is 87.5% more fatalities per vehicle but only 46.5% more fatalities per mile traveled.

I've never traveled in eastern Europe, it seems most the European countries that are worse than the US are eastern European.
 
human drivers are responsible for hundreds if not thousands of fatal accidents every day. but just remember, one mistake from google's driverless car and the system is unsafe. makes sense!
 
WBurchnall said:
I disagree respectfully in that even if it had equal safety, I'd probably buy one for the convenience. I had to communite 45 minutes one-way to reach my university. On test-days or exam days, I would have loved to use those 45 minutes to review. Heck, if I could have done nothing but review for 45 minutes a day, the previous week or days material, I'm sure it would have reflected in my grades. Even 45 minutes of sleep or watching a tv show would be nice for relaxation/stress level.
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Yeah, I'm sure there's some people who would like them even if the safety is on par with humans. But I think a lot of people wouldn't because if they have the same likelihood of death, they'd probably trust themselves more than the robot... well at least I know I would :p
 
bsoft said:
Per mile/km, US drivers are safer than drivers in much of Europe and reasonably similar to Germany, which is the country that I often hear cited as having "much better drivers" than the US.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
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The counter-argument to that though is a US street is generally double the size when you include the shoulder and road/lane width. Perhaps triple if you include no sidewalk. So you can think of it as 'US Drivers have a better K:D ratio on 'easy mode' than much of Europe[on hard], which is the area I often hear cited as having much better skill" than the US.
 
It is hard to take an article seriously when it states
Early tests suggest that, at 40 miles per hour, an automated car can stop within 9 feet; the average human (who is paying attention), will stop within 12 feet.
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My car, which has somewhat better braking than the average car on the road (2005 BMW M3), takes approx. 50 ft to brake from 40 - 0 mph not including reaction time.

I certainly question whether or not someone who says the following should even have a drivers licence.
"If a child steps out at 10 feet, the human kills the child, the automated car doesn't," Michael Toscano, head of the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International said Tuesday. "At 8 feet, either one will kill the child. We accept humans to be faulty, but we don't accept machines killing human beings."
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Of course, maybe that's why he is the head of the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International. :D
 
please let me test one so I can nap on my way to work....yay for 45 min of extra sleep! lol
 
BombermanX said:
More likely to be run over by a human driver than a robotic one.
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Which is exactly why even one accident would be catastrophic for driverless cars. When anyone or anything is considered a perfectionist, the rare case of a mistake is magnified exponentially.

She probably wrote this article on her cell phone while drinking a big gulp and driving her car with her knees.
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That is totally believable of someone with fighter pilot and MIT professor on their resume. You should take a second to click the link to see who actually wrote the article.
 
People want this because they want to be able to do something else with their time spent driving. So by definition of what people want, it means there will be no human judgement applied at all while driving.

Oh yeah, its your car and your responsibility if it plows into someone. Good luck if you defense was "! was playing fruit ninja".
 
Wonder how the current google car deals with a traffic director personnel's various directing signals, or how to go about getting by obtrusive and oddly laid out "road work" areas with workers that spin stop/slow signs.
 
Nicterys said:
That is totally believable of someone with fighter pilot and MIT professor on their resume. You should take a second to click the link to see who actually wrote the article.
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Which proves what? That smart people can say stupid things, too?

The "public outcry about drones" is about their use as weapons and surveillance tools. People don't want them buzzing around their cities watching them and they don't want them shooting at US citizens. Further, I don't think there's any proof that people who dislike drones think that they're acting autonomously based on artificial intelligence, which makes drones versus driverless cars apples versus oranges.

As for the theory that the first fatality in a driverless car accident is going to cause an uproar, well, no shit. For one thing, the media will make a huge deal about it and inspire dullards without MIT degrees to hold forth as if they're experts on the subject. This of course won't change the eventual outcome that driverless cars will absolutely end up safer than those operated directly by humans, and in the future will be the norm.

The reason it's inevitable is this: More driverless cars means safer roads because those cars will operate in predictable ways, both to other drivers and to pedestrians. On the other hand, more human-controlled cars make the roads less safe because taken individually they are operated in unpredictable ways.
 
BombermanX said:
More likely to be run over by a human driver than a robotic one.
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And more likely to die prematurely from diseases brought about by obesity, making McDonalds the greatest threat to your wellbeing.

But that's not the point.

The point is liability, and she is absolutely right. All it would take is one of Google's driverless cars malfunctioning, hitting a pedestrian that gets stuck under the car, and dragging the body a few blocks. Yes, someone is going to run over a child this year too, but if a driverless car screws up and doesn't stop at a crosswalk and kills a 6-year old girl, its the only thing that will be on the news that week and while you can't sue a driver that makes $40K very much, you sure as hell can sue a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Without some kind of legal immunity, I don't see how driverless cars can ever go mainstream.
 
PornoSatan said:
You guys can't be serious. The US is probably one of the better countries when it comes to driving.
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In Illinois, if you are an illegal immigrant and get in an accident, you get a free drivers license so you don't go to jail and be separated from your illegal immigrant family.
 
I'm just excited about automated cars because it means I can have a beer in one hand and my gun in the right. MURRKA!
 
Quicksilver_ said:
Australians are the worst drivers. We can't even merge properly.
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I always groan very loudly when I'm stuck behind someone in the merge lane, 9 times out of 10 they're doing 20 bellow the speed of the traffic they're meant to be merging into.
 
Kor said:
I always groan very loudly when I'm stuck behind someone in the merge lane, 9 times out of 10 they're doing 20 bellow the speed of the traffic they're meant to be merging into.
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The worst part is it's not entirely their fault. So many people fail to understand the concept of a "zipline" where they need to accomodate for the other driver.
 
I'm pretty sure Missy's statement is a bit off topic since the dislike of drones isn't that one will fall on them.
 
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