Here we go. Autonomous vehicles are now mowing down cyclists.
I hope that Waymo’s insurance is good!
Can we get the hyperbole out of here? If OP had actually read (and understood) the article they would have seen it was one of those confluence of events that no one could see coming. As soon as the car detected the cyclist it hit the brakes and the cyclist had minor injuries.
Basically, this car didn’t mow anyone down and did exactly what it was designed to do and attempted not to hit anyone.
As soon as the car detected the cyclist it hit the brakes and the cyclist had minor injuries.
Had you read (and understood) the article, you would have seen that police have no details about what caused the crash, so you’re basing your assessment entirely on what the company said happened.
They have a certain level of damage-control to contend with, so no doubt they won’t be admitting negligence.
I think the cyclist only walked away with minor injuries because of the low speed of the accident (the car was allegedly coming off a stop sign) and vehicle type. But I also think it should have it seen or anticipated the cyclist and stopped sooner, especially at such low speeds.
Unless, of course, the claim is that the cyclist hit the car, and not the other way around.
I guess we’ll know when Waymo hands over the ride footage. Hopefully, they comply and not withhold it like their competitor did.
To be fair, the article is trash. There’s details in other publications, like Reuters:
"Waymo said its vehicle was at a complete stop at a four-way intersection when a large truck crossed the intersection in its direction. At its turn to proceed, the Waymo car moved forward.
However, the cyclist, who was obscured by the truck which the cyclist was following, took a left turn into the Waymo vehicle’s path. When the cyclist was fully visible, the Waymo’s vehicle braked heavily, but wasn’t able to avoid the collision, the company said."
Drafting through an intersection is not very safe (I really should stop doing it myself) because of this exact visibility problem. Heck, it seems our cyclist friend cut left because they couldn’t see the waymo car either.
Watch out when crossing busy intersections, folk! Cars are bulky and opaque. Yield when encountering busy intersections.
This exactly. OP has their head so far up their ass about this they refuse to acknowledge that the cyclist was also culpable here.
I’m accepting what was said at face value as it sounds probable. It’s clear that OP did not actually understand the article and assuming they read it, they were already biased and can’t separate their personal feelings from the facts being presented.
Truth is this would be much less likely to happen with better road/urban design. For example, this junction designed with bikes in mind: https://youtu.be/FlApbxLz6pA?si=dzIvntaWJo2DGQ0N
Totally! And SF is a place that’s been deploying more bicycle infrastructure and instructing their police to not enforce rolling stops, since at least from 2015! Our car brained governor is stopping such progress, so the battle continues. At least SF residents are holding their ground and voting to keep places like the great highway and JFK drive car-free.
‘Waymo said’
Last year, or the year before, there was a murder in Iceland and it made national news. Why? Because there are virtually no murders in that country - it is an exception to the rule.
Mile-for-mile, self-driving cars fare significantly better than humans: who are actually the ones “mowing down people.” Especially the drunk ones. It’s exactly the same situation as Iceland with the murders, if you had national news each time a human caused a casualty there would be hardly enough time to tell the news.
The “mowing down” hyperbole is doing your cause no justice. I certainly agree that it’s too early to go completely driverless (especially when your trustworthy humans go hands/eyes-free in cars that explicitly disallow it) - but humans have never had the qualifications to deal with something that drives 10x the speed than they can sprint.
If you want to pull self-driving cars off the road then, great! I think we can all agree with that. Let’s pull all human drivers off the road first - not only do the statistics support that we’re incompet, biology does too.
You need to be better. The article says there was a passenger in the car, I’m sure they can and will testify as to exactly what happened.
Again. This wasn’t a mowing down of anyone and it was a situation that even human drivers wouldn’t have been able to avoid.
I’m accepting that statement from waymo at face value until given reason not to. There are likely witnesses including the aforementioned passenger. Waymo is the one who called the cops. You need to take a breath and stop letting your hatred of vehicles larger than a bicycle color your take on things. It’s not healthy and it will lead to stress based health issues down the road.
The above said. You have a nice day now.
I’m sure they were completely paying attention to what their car was doing like every time one of these things happen.
You need to be better. The article says there was a passenger in the car, I’m sure they can and will testify as to exactly what happened.
Do you think that the passenger would have been paying attention to what’s in front of the car? I don’t think so, but I would rather go by the cameras on the car - they don’t lie.
Again. This wasn’t a mowing down of anyone and it was a situation that even human drivers wouldn’t have been able to avoid.
I think they would have. At least human drivers that aren’t driving like self-driving cars 😜
You need to take a breath and stop letting your hatred of vehicles larger than a bicycle color your take on things. It’s not healthy and it will lead to stress based health issues down the road.
Fair point, and I appreciate your concern.
My daughter’s friend was killed by a driver in a pick-up truck less than a year ago while she was riding an e-scooter. It was 100% avoidable, and the driver was only charged with failure to yield.
No charges for actually killing her. So when I see that cars are still hurting or killing people, it boils my blood because I know that the driver (self-driving or not) will never be held accountable.
Can’t wait until a guy that loses the ability to use their legs because they got demolished by a self driving cat has to defend themselves against corporate lawyers for daring to exist next to their infallible automated driving car.
The car’s driver AI is becoming more human-like in running down cyclists, that is just concerning.
They did say they wanted to replace human drivers. Only seems fair that they ignore us on bikes, just like the previous pilots.
The day I get hit by a driverless car while on my bike is the day I lose what little sanity I have left. That car better hope it hits me good, else it’s gonna get some heavy u-lock treatment.
The choice between a range of humans drivers on the roads or only good self driving cars, give me the self driving cars.
But they aren’t there yet they are still being developed.
Sure you want to get rid of cars on the roads, I get that. But frankly it won’t happen, ever. Trying to stop self driving cars is trying to stop a future where you don’t have to worry about some driver being distracted and killing you.
Self driving cars are going to be the only thing that gets me on most of the roads that have no designated cycle lane.
I’ll take a good human driver over a good self-driving car. Humans can anticipate with foresight in a way that autonomous vehicles can’t.
For example, there are areas or times of the day where it might be common for pedestrians to walk out from behind a parked vehicle. A good human driver would know this, and drive defensively.
A self driving car only knows how to react to what it sees. And it can often wrong in certain situations. There are quite a few videos online of Teslas wanting to steer into danger or ignoring traffic stops.
I think the only way that self driving cars can work is if they are on designated roads (I.e. highway) with no random events like human drivers, cyclists, or kids near by.
But I really think it’s irresponsible for our governments to allow beta technology on public roads. There is no real accountability for when they fail. Maybe a small fine or settlement in court, but that’s about it.
How do you ensure all human drivers and good ones and not distracted? That’s roads I want to be on. If you know how to do that countries around the world want to hear from you.
Waymo actually seems very cautious. It’s was actually a known issue especially at the start. You can also programme it to be cautious at certain points.
We are talking self driving cars, think waymo. We are not talking about lane assist, what Tesla does is irrelevant. I was also on about thr tech when it’s more developed, but right now at this moment in time it is already safer than drivers in the US.
I hate the lane assist in our car, I had to shut it off. It kept steering the car back toward obstacles I was trying to avoid, like trucks with wide loads, potholes, and cyclists. I don’t know why anyone thinks that shit is a good idea. I’m sure driverless cars will make the same stupid mistakes.
I’ve never had issues with it because it shuts off when indicating in the direction that you are turning.
I’m not indicating when I’m sliding to the left or right within the lane I’m already in…
Mine disconnects when I steer. Both my cars will just beep at you for actively steering across a line, though you do need to overpower the machine’s steering
Yeah that “machine’s steering” is what pisses me off (and got shut off).
I’ve been driving for decades. Hundreds of thousands of miles. Everything from small cars to pickups towing 30’ trailers, and motorhomes towing cars. I have ONE at-fault accident in my record during all that time (which likely wouldn’t have been helped by the nanny features). I do not need the help.
I’m not saying I’m perfect; I make mistakes, too. But the fucking false alarms and shit from the car is distracting. I almost hit the brakes the first time I got a false alarm, because I thought there was something seriously wrong with our new car. It’s training me to ignore the alarm, so when I actually do make a mistake it catches, I’ll probably just ignore it - making them useless.
Why TF are cars driving themselves around without people? Like the 1:1 ratio of cars to people wasn’t bad enough now we need to clog up the roads and pollute our air even more and for what?? Like literally for what?
In this incident there was a passenger in the car. They were not injured.
The rolling taxis problem is still a thing though. I know there’s lots for these self-driving cars to hang out in, but even that means a return trip back to base is without passengers.
The bots can’t let humans have all the fun.
That car being driverless could have saved their life.
It also sounds like it’s a situation that even a human driver wouldn’t have been able to avoid. Until the tech can see around corners and through solid objects, this kind of thing is still likely to happen regardless of who or what is driving.
When I don’t see what’s coming because there’s a semi truck in the way, I wait.
When an automated car sees a gap, it dives in.
Rule 1
