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NeonCarbon

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,461
2906.jpg


An Uber self-driving test car which killed a woman crossing the street detected her but decided not to react immediately, a report has said.

The car was travelling at 40mph (64km/h) in self-driving mode when it collided with 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg at about 10pm on 18 March. Herzberg was pushing a bicycle across the road outside of a crossing. She later died from her injuries.

Although the car's sensors detected Herzberg, its software which decides how it should react was tuned too far in favour of ignoring objects in its path which might be "false positives" (such as plastic bags), according to a report from the Information. This meant the modified Volvo XC90 did not react fast enough.

The report also said the human safety driver was not paying close enough attention to intervene before the vehicle struck the pedestrian.

Arizona suspended Uber's self-driving vehicle testing after the incident. The company later settled with Herzberg's family.

Uber and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the incident. Uber has already reached its preliminary conclusion, according to the report. A comprehensive NTSB report is expected later.
Guardian
'The Information' Report article

I'm still waiting for the NTSB report, but slightly alarming if a False Positive could be the reason (although expected), especially if it is true that other tech could have detected it correctly and braked.
 

Luchashaq

Banned
Nov 4, 2017
4,329
After watching the video I would have 100% hit her as well.

I've missed people by 6 inches like 10 times when they are crossing the multi lane road near me that's dark as fuck doing similar stuff.

USE FUCKING CROSSWALKS WHEN IT'S DARK.
 

Deleted member 3058

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,728
Watching the video (ugh) I'm not sure the crash would have been avoidable by even the most adept human driver so there's not much I think the safety driver could have done.

But we expect these self-driving cars to be better than people. It makes me wonder how..how many seconds sooner did the car detect her than a driver would have?

Edit:
Wasn't that later disproved i.e. it wasn't as dark as the footage implies?

Like this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRW0q8i3u6E

Ahh, noted.
 

CosmicGP

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,870
Wasn't the 'human safety driver' outright sleeping? Or is 'not paying close enough attention' a euphemism.
 

Shadowrun

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,747
Wasn't that later disproved i.e. it wasn't as dark as the footage implies?

Like this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRW0q8i3u6E

As a photographer, it is tough to gauge lighting conditions based on videos taken from two different devices.

The camera optics in the dash cam versus the cellphone are probably wildly different; with the latter likely better at low light conditions, broadly speaking. To me, it looks like Uber dash cam was exposing for the headlights of the vehicle, which, yes, would make the surrounding area appear much darker than reality. Meanwhile, the cellphone was likely exposing for the entire scene, making things somewhat brighter than what you'd see with the naked eye.

The truth is, most likely, somewhere in the middle. But, all that is largely irrelevant, since the story in this article points to the real reason the car failed to avoid her: a failing in the coding.
 

SpecX

The Fallen
Oct 30, 2017
1,809
IIRC he was looking at his phone. Pretty sure they released a video showing his reaction too.
Yeah, the video released showed him on his phone and he reacted at the last minute as the car was about to strike. Easily avoided had he been focusing on the road ahead.
 

Creamie

Avenger
Nov 14, 2017
543
Damn, she basically came out of nowhere, even if it wasn't as dark as it looked like it was from that camera, some of the responsibility has to be with the jaywalker herself. Not trying to victim blame, but if it is a 150lb person vs a 4000+lb car, the 150lb person has to look after themselves.

I do find it a shame that it is going to be a long, tough road ahead for self-driving cars. Any accidents that do happen are going to be criticized extensively, even though they are still much more safer than a comparable human driver.

Wasn't that later disproved i.e. it wasn't as dark as the footage implies?

Like this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRW0q8i3u6E

Well that video also has string lights that look like they help illuminate the road.

Link to hte actual video. It doesn't show the actual collision, just right up to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7d90ZFhg28&pbjreload=10
 

Quixzlizx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,591
You'd think Uber would make sure the people sitting in their prototypes that could possibly determine the fate of the company aren't bunglers.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,250
Came out of nowhere? She was in the middle of the street! The car saw her but misidentified her.

Lighting lol these cars have sonar and infra red.
 

dejay

Member
Nov 5, 2017
4,059
Wasn't the 'human safety driver' outright sleeping? Or is 'not paying close enough attention' a euphemism.
I watched the video closely at the time. The driver had his eyes off the road for six seconds from memory.

Given the position of two street lights just metres from where the pedestrian crossed, I believe the driver would have easily seen her if he was looking at the road. The original video gave a false impression of how dark it was which can be demonstrated by the barely visible red light and illuminated car park in the intersection ahead.
 

scotdar

Banned
Dec 10, 2017
580
This will be a tricky one to sort out using software. Do you slam on the brakes or swerve and hope all the other drives don't crash into each other and kill more people or do you hit the object and hope for the best. In this case walking right in front of a moving vehicle seems not the best thing to do. There didn't seem to be a lot of traffic so the car should detect the vehicle behind and decide if it should break or not. This is something human beings are generally not capable of doing though.
 
Oct 27, 2017
42,700
The report also said the human safety driver was not paying close enough attention to intervene before the vehicle struck the pedestrian.
It seems like this is the common factor in these accidents. People will say it reflects negatively on the tech, but the fact that they have safety driver show these companies are under no illusion that it's ready for full autonomy. They need to do something about these drivers not staying alert
 

scotdar

Banned
Dec 10, 2017
580
It seems like this is the common factor in these accidents. People will say it reflects negatively on the tech, but the fact that they have safety driver show these companies are under no illusion that it's ready for full autonomy. They need to do something about these drivers not staying alert

This was the most glaring thing for me, the employee is fully aware he is being recorded so clearly Uber did not care if they actually paid attention.
 

Dude Abides

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,382

Creamie

Avenger
Nov 14, 2017
543
Uber treats its female employees poorly. I appreciate you guys actually asking for clarification instead of jumping to conclusions.

Still, what does that have anything to do with the topic at hand?

There really is no jumping to conclusions, the report said that a self-driving car hit a pedestrian, and you said that it "must have been a female employee". The only correlation that is there is you saying that females are bad drivers.

Even if that isn't what you meant, you need some clarification when you post, because there is no fucking way anyone could see that post and think of "oh yeah, uber treats female employees badly".
 

DigitalOp

Member
Nov 16, 2017
9,272
The damning info was that the Human Saftey Driver didn't pay enough attention to stop it.

That defeats the entire purpose of the initiative
 

Mugsy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,256
Although the car's sensors detected Herzberg, its software which decides how it should react was tuned too far in favour of ignoring objects in its path which might be "false positives" (such as plastic bags), according to a report from the Information.
If their self driving technology sees obstacles but is unable to tell if it is a harmless object like a plastic bag or a person then it should not be on the road.
 

Dude Abides

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,382
Still, what does that have anything to do with the topic at hand?

There really is no jumping to conclusions, the report said that a self-driving car hit a pedestrian, and you said that it "must have been a female employee". The only correlation that is there is you saying that females are bad drivers.

Even if that isn't what you meant, you need some clarification when you post, because there is no fucking way anyone could see that post and think of "oh yeah, uber treats female employees badly".

Yes, clearly the natural conclusion to reach regarding a comment about a story involving a driverless car hitting someone is that the comment is about the driver, not the person struck.
 

Tom Nook

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
15,781
Heard about this story but this is the first time seeing the video.

Not putting blame on the pedestrian but would it be smart to slow down to check if the car is slowing down to let you pass?Did the pedestrian kept walking assuming the car is going to stop? Again, NOT saying it's the pedestrian fault.

The car saw her but misidentified her.
It was a software problem.

Even if it's not human - like a cone or cardboard box for example , should've the car still stop or slow down?
 

motherless

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,282
Yeah, the video released showed him on his phone and he reacted at the last minute as the car was about to strike. Easily avoided had he been focusing on the road ahead.

Person had one job and failed miserably at it. Clearly the technology isn't ready and why a person needs to be in the car.
 

Maven

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,076
Earth
After watching the video I would have smashed her or swerved possibly losing control of my car and hitting a street pole
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772

motherless

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,282
"The" technology is pretty good. Uber's technology in particular, on the other hand, sucks ass.


I like the concept behind the joke, but I think you gotta hold the L on this one. At first glance, your post just looks like a lame woman driver comment.



Does Uber use some variant that is majorly different from what Tesla or others use?
 

Moral Panic

Member
Oct 28, 2017
503
That video is shows how easily people can be manipulated. Has no one ever driven outside in the dark before? How in the world can you believe for a second that it is that dark on a well lit road? Maybe I should get a dash cam and give it terrible black crush so I can get away with murder because it's clear that as soon as people see video they completely turn their brains off and lose all reasoning ability.
 

Antrax

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,263
Came out of nowhere? She was in the middle of the street! The car saw her but misidentified her.

Lighting lol these cars have sonar and infra red.

The reason people bring up lighting is to compare to a human. If a human would've also hit this person, then it's not really much of a knock against AI cars.
 

MazeHaze

Member
Nov 1, 2017
8,570
Yes, clearly the natural conclusion to reach regarding a comment about a story involving a driverless car hitting someone is that the comment is about the driver, not the person struck.
There was a human driver in the car though. I took your comment to be a "hurrrr girls can't drive good" post as well, and it seems like you're trying to bait/gaslight people tbh.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
Does Uber use some variant that is majorly different from what Tesla or others use?
Here's a decent write-up: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/technology/uber-self-driving-cars-arizona.html

Waymo, formerly the self-driving car project of Google, said that in tests on roads in California last year, its cars went an average of nearly 5,600 miles before the driver had to take control from the computer to steer out of trouble. As of March, Uber was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per "intervention" in Arizona, according to 100 pages of company documents obtained by The New York Times and two people familiar with the company's operations in the Phoenix area but not permitted to speak publicly about it.
 

ChrisJSY

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,053
Heard about this story but this is the first time seeing the video.

Not putting blame on the pedestrian but would it be smart to slow down to check if the car is slowing down to let you pass?Did the pedestrian kept walking assuming the car is going to stop? Again, NOT saying it's the pedestrian fault.


Even if it's not human - like a cone or cardboard box for example , should've the car still stop or slow down?

Yep my first thought too, the person literally walked in to the path of a car, you never ever want to assume that any person driving see's you.
Very stupid and avoidable.

Also the cars recognition is fucking awful if it thought an object of that size wasn't relevant.
 

HStallion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
62,222
And people were saying Uber might have flying cars in the near future in that other thread
 

Luchashaq

Banned
Nov 4, 2017
4,329
Well, that isn't that relevant. The car hit her not because it was dark, they use radar/lidar to detect objects and obstacles. It was a software problem.

In the long term the only thing that actually is relevant is if they are safer than human drivers.

I would be willing to bet almost anything that they are monumentally safer than human drivers already.
 

diablos991

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
933
Glad to see Uber feeling repercussions here.
Hope there are consequences for the driver as well since they onviesly weren't paying attention when they were supposed to.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,250
The reason people bring up lighting is to compare to a human. If a human would've also hit this person, then it's not really much of a knock against AI cars.

A human paying attention should not have hit her, thats the entire point. Everyone saying "yeah I would have hit her too" needs to turn in their license.
 

GMM

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,480
Watching the video of the incident it seems probable that the outcome would have been the same with a human driver, it's very dark where she is crossing.

This could have been a much different story had the software been in order and swerved away, but it will take some time before we fully get there.

The fact that we haven't really seen many of these cases is a major indication that the technology is going in the right direction and it's a question of time before cars automatically can make the best choice before a would be accident happens.