Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Uber

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by sjg007 on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @05:12PM (#16632711)

If I was driving a car and saw the pedestrian ahead of time walking or trying to cross I would have slowed down and changed lanes away fro them or at least moved far right if safe. Same thing when you pass bicycles. Change lanes away if possible or at the very least give more buffer. You can never tell what someone may do so you should anticipate the unexpected.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by IncRnd on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:36PM (#16633846)

I haven't read the words "defensive driving" in any of the articles about this incident.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by antoineMoPa on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:53PM (#16633947)

Yes, and they thought it was a good idea to make cars go at 38mph in a 30mph zone.

Edit: The limit seems to be 35mph sorry, thank all of you for pointing that out. (38 is still over the limit, why allow a robot to do that?)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by prawn on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:59PM (#16634334)

This article said 35mph. Other articles have suggested it was a 45mph zone.

On Google Streetview, you can see that the road changes from 35mph to 45mph at the underpass before the site of the accident.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by drdrey on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:26PM (#16634145)

"The vehicle was doing about 40 miles per hour on a street with a 45 m.p.h. speed limit when it struck Ms. Herzberg, who was walking her bicycle across the street, according to the Tempe police"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by IncRnd on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:46PM (#16634256)

> "The vehicle was doing about 40 miles per hour on a street with a 45 m.p.h. speed limit when it struck Ms. Herzberg, who was walking her bicycle across the street, according to the Tempe police"

According to the article page that you are commenting, "The speed limit where the accident occurred is 35 mph, police spokeswoman Lily Duran said."

Even so, defensive driving is more than simply driving the speed limit. Also from this article, "... the lack of braking or swerving whatsoever is alarming and suggests that the system never anticipated the collision."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by prawn on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @09:02PM (#16634354)

Might be an error? If you travel that road on street view, you see a sign for 30mph, the 35mph before the bridge over water, then 45mph at the underpass. The sign is mounted above the road, on the underpass itself.

Of course, something might have changed since street view went through.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by kristjansson on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:24PM (#16634135)

It was a 35 mph zone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by prawn on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @09:00PM (#16634341)

Are you sure? Per Street View, there's a 45 mph sign where the road goes under the underpass, prior to the site of the accident. Unless that's since changed, of course.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by cimmanom on Wednesday March 21, 2018 @05:37AM (#16636614)

Another possibility: the car was relying on outdated speed limit data. Which is another potential failing of such systems.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by prawn on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @09:04PM (#16634363)

The human in the car said that the first sign they got of a potential issue was the sound of the collision itself. Unless they were paying no attention, that might indicate that this scenario was likely to be very difficult to avoid?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by in_cahoots on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @09:59PM (#16634677)

Humans are terrible at remembering specific events, particularly after something so traumatic as hitting and killing a pedestrian. And given that a woman was killed, driver inattention doesn’t seem at all unlikely.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by daodedickinson on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:13PM (#16633703)

Yep, after a friend had someone try to use her van to commit suicide I am paranoid and get ready to avoid every pedestrian. I don't know what I'd do if I lived somewhere with many pedestrians.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by sulam on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @10:28PM (#16634806)

You should be paranoid about pedestrians it turns out, even if they aren’t suicidal. You are in a pedestrian-killing machine, after all. Being paranoid about this is no less reasonable than being sure to keep your chemicals and sharp knives out of the reach of toddlers if you have them both in your home.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Police Say Video Shows Woman Stepped Suddenly in Front of... by BigJono on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @10:42PM (#16634894)

This is an absolutely terrible idea. Don't do this. Your job as traffic is to be as predictable as possible. You're just going to cause more accidents by driving erratically.

[ Parent | on HN ]