Re:GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of s...
by ashtonkem on Thursday May 14, 2020 @05:25PM
(#23185712)
Obviously cars and pedestrians should be separated, but you are dramatically understating the impact speed has on pedestrian survival rates.
At 5mph your chance of surviving a collision is extremely high. Heck, you have a 93% chance of surviving a 20mph crash, depending on your age. Survival rates drop off quickly with speed however, with only 80% surviving at 30mph, and 45mph being a 50/50 chance for most of the population.
The effect is that slowing cars down from 35mph to 20mph in areas where pedestrians are close to cars could potentially double the chance of a pedestrian surviving a crash. And that’s not even accounting for how much less likely a collision is to happen at 20mph than 35mph.
Edit: of course, we can and should add more tech to make cars safer. That’s why backup cameras and seat belts are mandatory, and that’s a good thing. But as an argument for self driving cars, I think that they really come up short when there are tons of effective strategies available right now that we aren’t applying. And that’s my point.
Re:GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of s...
by jdxcode on Thursday May 14, 2020 @11:26PM
(#23188519)
that makes sense given kinetic energy is mass * velocity^2. That squaring of velocity means every mph as they get higher is even more significant than the ones before.
At 5mph your chance of surviving a collision is extremely high. Heck, you have a 93% chance of surviving a 20mph crash, depending on your age. Survival rates drop off quickly with speed however, with only 80% surviving at 30mph, and 45mph being a 50/50 chance for most of the population.
The effect is that slowing cars down from 35mph to 20mph in areas where pedestrians are close to cars could potentially double the chance of a pedestrian surviving a crash. And that’s not even accounting for how much less likely a collision is to happen at 20mph than 35mph.
Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/unsafe-at-many-speeds
Edit: of course, we can and should add more tech to make cars safer. That’s why backup cameras and seat belts are mandatory, and that’s a good thing. But as an argument for self driving cars, I think that they really come up short when there are tons of effective strategies available right now that we aren’t applying. And that’s my point.