Uber ordered to stop self-driving vehicle service in San Francisco

Re:Uber ordered to stop self-driving vehicle service in San ... by Animats on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @09:20PM (#13181808)

The data collection required for autonomous vehicles includes even very minor accidents. The idea is to collect data on what failed and why before somebody gets killed. Unlike regular accident data, all reports are public. This lets us see that Google's repeat problem is being rear-ended when their cars stop while entering an intersection because they detected cross-traffic. It also tells us that Cruise Automation hit a parked car on 4th St in SF for no good reason.

Anybody testing autonomous vehicles has this data. They just have to send it in.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber ordered to stop self-driving vehicle service in San ... by dmix on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @09:29PM (#13181865)

So do you think the public wouldn't be able to inform themselves on which service or vehicle is safer before purchasing these cars without this data? Or that Google, Uber, Tesla, etc wouldn't already be taking these numbers very seriously and doing everything to minimize them? Or that the public wouldn't truly know the real safety of these vehicle as a whole vs human drivers.... without this mandatory test vehicle permit?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber ordered to stop self-driving vehicle service in San ... by objclxt on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @10:22PM (#13182128)

> Or that Google, Uber, Tesla, etc wouldn't already be taking these numbers very seriously and doing everything to minimize them?

Given that we know existing car manufacturers have faked or covered up safety data in the past, you're putting a lot of faith in the goodness of tech companies.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber ordered to stop self-driving vehicle service in San ... by dmix on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @10:25PM (#13182139)

The organization who detected that VW was faking the data wasn't actually the government (California Air Resources Board in this case). It was detected by a privately funded organization... funded in part by technology billionaires:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Council_on_Clean...

...I'm the one questioning the utility in of California's system of control. My faith in either actor's earnest participation is therefore not of much use.

I do know customers value safety and honesty of companies they buy/use cars from, and so do the investors who back these companies. Which are the people who keep these companies in business. That pressure exists independently of these permits. Which is why one must realistically question the utility of special government oversight.

[ Parent | on HN ]