Self-driving car crash kills pedestrian

The first pedestrian death from a self-driving car crash incident was recorded last month when the vehicle didn't stop when a human entered its path. The 49-year-old woman was walking across the street at night in a poorly lit area and not at a designated crosswalk.

Video released from inside the car shows the safety operator appeared to look at something inside the vehicle and not at the road at the time of the incident. Uber has temporarily suspended its self-driving program. 

Recent figures suggest 94 percent of crashes involve some form of driver error or impairment immediately before impact and 4 in every 11 crashes that occur could potentially be avoided if distractions were eliminated.

Are you for the introduction fo self-driving cars or would you prefer to trust a human incontrol of a car? 

10 comments

Is it possible the pedestrian had suicidal thoughts? Having a self drive car and doing the driving? Isnt that a lot like having a guard dog and doing the barking??

 

 

It is sad the pedestrian was killed..however I read somewhere that she was outside the boundary of the crosswalk.

A human might have spotted her and been able to stop..but it appears that the computer is only programmed to take into account the specifics of the crosswalk..maybe lots more work has to be done.


I saw the video from the car - no street lights, very dark and I only saw her literally metres before the car hit her. I believe no human could have avoided the person. The US has 42,000 road deaths per year, this one makes the news because it's a self driving car.

Self drive cars wont be that much safer than human drivers,  one exception being,  wont be on the phone.

Uber is a service I refuse to use. TAxi drivers are police checked. Uber drifvers are not.

Plus insurance issues.  Let alone rape etc

 

You've never heard of taxi drivers raping and assaulting passengers - it happens.

Give me a car I can drive myself every time

It is sad that someone died, but if we gave up on new technology every time someone died accidently we would not have commercial airlines, cars, ships, electricity or many of the things that make life so easy for us now.  

We have no evidence that if a driver was behind the wheel and in sole charge this tragic accident would have beeen avoided.

Thinking much the same thing myself exPS. 

There were numerous people who thought the old horse and carriage was safer than the motor car and swore they would never drive one.  And then there were the people who pointed out all the deaths that had occurred when horses bolted.

Seems like nothing much changes.

I also guess that the stats have to come into this. What percentage of accidents are cuased by self drive cars versus human driven cars. If self drive is 50% less then it says lets go for self drive cars.

What's the chance of a human driver hitting a pedestrian on a dark night who is not on a crossing. Fairly high but we want driverless cars to do better. So do I.

This car had a human overdrive driver who could have taken over at any time

I looked at the video link in article above and the human uber driver was looking down their lap ...?reading emails or whatever then looked at the scenery on the left ? and too late was the aghast look as the pedestrian wheeling the bicycle was run down.

The pedestrian appeared to also be at fault .... surely you do not cross the road with headlights of a car approaching.

Suze had a look myself I agree with you. I don't like my chances of stopping if I was driving.

Yes Suze, no different than avoiding a tram in Melbourne. 

I had a look at the video too and agree a human driver in full control of the car might well have had the same outcome.

All it takes is a second's inattention for something as awful as that to happen, more's the pity.

I guess pedestrians have to take some responsibility for their safety too. 

This wouldn't put me off using a driverless car, but I think we have to be realistic, accidents will happen.  I guess time will tell if driverless cars turn out to be safer than what we now have.  I suspect they will.

Driverless cars are much safer than the idiot drivers who text whilst  driving.

I'll get one of those cars, then I can have a guilt free glass of vino whenever I please!

Image result for bill shorten driving

Can a person over-ride the operation of the driverless car? What happens if the computer in it malfunctions? In cars with "black boxes" under the bonnet I know of one failure which caused $3000.00 damage to the front of a car. No other cause found.

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