Introduction
The crash occurred Sunday at 2 p.m., when an Uber self-driving Volvo XC90 SUV operating in autonomous mode struck a woman crossing the street outside of a crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona. The woman later died from her injuries. In the NTSB report, investigators said they found no evidence that the vehicle attempted to brake before it collided with the woman. The crash has raised questions about whether autonomous vehicles are safe enough for public use, and whether their engineers can rely on computer algorithms instead of human intervention.”
“The incident has the potential of undermining consumer trust in autonomous cars in general,” said Raj Rajkumar, a computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who leads the school’s autonomous vehicle research.
As the old saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words.” And in this case, it seems that Uber’s actions have done more damage than its words.
The incident has the potential of undermining consumer trust in autonomous cars in general,” said Raj Rajkumar, a computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who leads the school’s autonomous vehicle research. “If you had a choice between two vehicles with similar performance attributes but one is driverless and one is not, most people would prefer the non-driverless option.”
That’s because consumers need to feel comfortable about handing over control of their lives to computers — even if those computers are safer drivers than humans are (and we know they are). But if something goes wrong with an autonomous car — whether it be due to mechanical failure or human error — then consumers will likely blame not only that particular company but also all companies working on self-driving technology.
“Even though this was human fault and not machine fault, it’s still going to hurt us.”
This is a setback for autonomous vehicles and the industry as a whole. Even though this was human fault and not machine fault, it’s still going to hurt us.
It’s always been hard to get people to trust autonomous cars–we’ve seen that through polls and surveys over the years. This incident will only make things worse for those who aren’t yet ready to give up control of their vehicles (and there are many). The general public needs more time before they feel comfortable riding in an AV without any interaction from a human driver or other passengers present in the vehicle at all times during operation.
The Uber crash also serves as evidence that even if you do have someone sitting behind the wheel, who may be able to take control if needed (or maybe not), they might not even see what happens next. This means that even with full autonomy coming closer every day, there will still be accidents involving these advanced vehicles–and sometimes they’ll be serious enough injuries or deaths occur because no one was paying attention when something went wrong.
The crash occurred Sunday at 2 p.m., when an Uber self-driving Volvo XC90 SUV operating in autonomous mode struck a woman crossing the street outside of a crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona.
An Uber self-driving Volvo XC90 SUV operating in autonomous mode struck a woman crossing the street outside of a crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona. The crash occurred Sunday at 2 p.m., when an Uber self-driving Volvo XC90 SUV operating in autonomous mode struck a woman crossing the street outside of a crosswalk in Tempe, Arizona.
The vehicle was traveling northbound on Mill Avenue when it collided with 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg who was walking her bicycle across Mill Avenue outside of a designated crosswalk, according to police reports released today by Tempe Police Department spokesman Sgt Ronald Elcock (R).
The car’s sensors detected Herzberg six seconds before impact but failed to stop because they were not designed to do so under those circumstances, Elcock said during an interview with ABC News today (T)
In the NTSB report, investigators said they found no evidence that the vehicle attempted to brake before the crash.
In the NTSB report, investigators said they found no evidence that the vehicle attempted to brake before the crash. The car was moving at 38 mph and failed to stop or slow down before hitting Herzberg, who was crossing outside of a crosswalk.
The NTSB reported that neither autonomous emergency braking nor automatic lane keeping systems were activated during the time leading up to impact. The vehicle also did not detect Herzberg when she walked into its path–an issue raised by many critics of autonomous vehicles since this tragedy occurred last year.
This crash could have been prevented if there had been a driver behind the wheel
This crash could have been prevented if there had been a driver behind the wheel.
The vehicle did not brake. The vehicle was in autonomous mode and had a driver behind the wheel. The driver was supposed to be paying attention, but he wasn’t because he was looking down at his phone instead of watching traffic in front of him or looking at his surroundings for pedestrians crossing streets or other cars making turns into oncoming traffic lanes like this one did (and got hit).
Conclusion
As we move forward, it’s important to remember that this crash could have been prevented if there had been a driver behind the wheel. Autonomous cars still have a long way to go before they are ready for mass adoption, but they are already proving themselves as safer than human drivers in many situations. If we want our roads to be safer and our lives easier then autonomous vehicles will be the answer – but we need more testing before they can be unleashed on public streets everywhere!