The whole reason many people on here have been advocating for self driving cars is that they can see obstructions more or less perfectly in the dark with LIDAR. I am much more interested in what that sensor said.
I'm reluctant to infer exactly what a human eye would have seen in that situation. I have absolutely driven down streets in suburbia where the gap between street lights was large enough to make them quite dark, and that video was an example of exactly what I was afraid of happening whenever I drove down those streets (though admittedly my fear was hitting a white tailed deer).
I think it might also be fair to argue that the car's high beams were not on (but again, that shouldn't matter because of LIDAR, right?).
I'm not confident even an above average human driver would be able to avoid that accident, even if good eyesight gave you an extra half second to respond. Dark clothing and no reflectors means that person was definitely invisible to both the camera and the driver for some time after they would have been visible in daylight.
I've had a couple of situations where someone appeared close to my line of travel with low visibility clothing (at night) that scared the living shit out of me, and they weren't trying to cross the street.
To be clear, I am not blaming the victim here, but do wear high visibility clothing when you're a pedestrian near high speed roads at night.
A person with common sense and a developed understanding of the situation would drive more slowly in situations like this. The law says that you don't drive faster than you can see.
A similar thing (no fatalities, just a shopping cart pushed by homeless people) happened to me. Ever since then, I have learned to be much more aware of situations like this (tunnel of light surrounded by darkness).
This just shows that Uber's tech is bad and that they let it on the road shows that their culture is still at least partly rotten.
I don't think Dara is the do gooder that some people are making him out to be. His primary motivation seems to be to usher Uber to an IPO. IMHO, if he actually had ethics, he would be front and center on this. Your company just killed someone. Where are you?
> The law says that you don't drive faster than you can see.
Amusingly, the law also says that manufacturers have to produce headlights that cast light out far enough to leave you adequate stopping distance at 60mph. Almost no headlights on the market currently do that.
Not a counterpoint, just a tangent that I find sadly amusing.
The ninja is the reference standard for real-world pedestrians. It's up there with the surprise moose. Systems that can only detect bright peds are going to be horrific meat grinders and lead to autocar hell instead of autocar heaven.
Sad side note that most people appear unaware of the benefits even the simplest and cheapest of reflectors do provide.
The seemingly random design decision of many runner manufacturers to embed tiny reflector strips in their shoes have no doubt saved countless lives. And their owners would probably be none the wiser.
And those who are aware often lack the understanding that with glare-minimizing headlights, reflective surfaces at or below knee-level are many times more useful than anything higher. A reflective hat would be pointless.
Yup. There's a place for education here. I know I wasn't really aware of the benefits until adult age, when I started to find myself more often in a car, at night, in rural areas. I still remember the first experience, in which I've noticed a cyclist on another lane ~0.5 seconds before we passed him. Dark clothes, dark bike, zero reflective elements.
In Norway, when growing up, I was frequently exposed to campaigns saying "Bruk refleks!" (Use reflector(s)!), and given free ones at every opportunity.
Of course it makes sense there where daylight may be hard to find half the year, however even in Australia, once it is dark the darkness is the same.
And I haven't seen a single government initiative to increase visibility awareness - most people are completely in the dark. (Sorry)
Riding shared bike trails in Melbourne at night on the commute home, this is something I think about often in the "winter" months. Peds may hate the strong glare from my LEDs, but it is the only thing the has half the chance of making out ninjas against the frequent sports ground stadium floodlights the path goes by.
> The whole reason many people on here have been advocating for self driving cars is that they can see obstructions more or less perfectly in the dark with LIDAR. I am much more interested in what that sensor said.
That is not the whole reason, it is one of many reasons.
> To be clear, I am not blaming the victim here, but do wear high visibility clothing when you're a pedestrian near high speed roads at night.
Preventing the accident might not have been possible, but even being able to decrease speed by a tiny amount would have greatly improved the pedestrian's chance of survival. Slowing from the 38mph that the car was traveling down to 30mph would decrease the chance of fatality from about 45% to below 10%.
I'm reluctant to infer exactly what a human eye would have seen in that situation. I have absolutely driven down streets in suburbia where the gap between street lights was large enough to make them quite dark, and that video was an example of exactly what I was afraid of happening whenever I drove down those streets (though admittedly my fear was hitting a white tailed deer).
I think it might also be fair to argue that the car's high beams were not on (but again, that shouldn't matter because of LIDAR, right?).
I'm not confident even an above average human driver would be able to avoid that accident, even if good eyesight gave you an extra half second to respond. Dark clothing and no reflectors means that person was definitely invisible to both the camera and the driver for some time after they would have been visible in daylight.
I've had a couple of situations where someone appeared close to my line of travel with low visibility clothing (at night) that scared the living shit out of me, and they weren't trying to cross the street.
To be clear, I am not blaming the victim here, but do wear high visibility clothing when you're a pedestrian near high speed roads at night.