The police just released footage, from Tempe, Arizona, that will shed some light on a fatal crash involving a self-driving Uber car and a female pedestrian named Elaine Herzberg. There is an outside and inside view of the incident which does show the safety driver inside as well as the pedestrian walking her bike across the four-lane street. The dimly lit street shows the woman clearly jaywalking but it also shows the safety driver looking down and not paying attention to the road. This raises debates about the real safety of these self-driving cars.
Some articles, “argue that self-driving cars are initially built with advanced sensor technology (radars and light-based Lidars) that should help them detect objects and obstacles in the way. According to professor Raj Rajkumar:
“The sensors should have detected the pedestrian in this case; the cameras were likely useless but both the radars and the Lidar must have picked up the pedestrian.”
The woman definitely was wrong for not crossing at an intersection crosswalk. Although there must have been safety checks in place to prevent this from happening. Uber Comms on Twitter said, “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We’re fully cooperating with @TempePolice and local authorities as they investigate this incident.”
Many articles state,
“Arizona, like California, is the hotbed for developing self-driving car technology due to its weather conditions and favorable laws. Just earlier this month, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order that allows self-driving cars on state roads without a test driver behind the wheel.
Critics argue, however, that companies might be getting ahead of themselves in order to be early winners in the race when the technology for cars to fully sense their environment is not close to being finished. The Tempe incident is sure to fuel another heated discussion.”
You can view the video here.
Personally, I am very excited about self-driving cars because driving makes me anxious. Another thing that makes me anxious are flat earth believers but there might be some evidence why nothing has fallen off the edge yet.
