Uber Self-Driving Car Kills Pedestrian

[GOZFST]

In other words... unless the passenger has a checkered past: no felons were involved in this one!

The "passenger" who is a UBER employee is responsible for monitoring and correcting any problems as they travel down the road. The passenger/monitor in this situation is a felon, at least according to the local talking heads. My neighbor rides along in driver less cars for a living, I don't believe she is a felon.

[Peteoz]

Rincon,

Sounds like your putting the cart before the horse. This is from the link you provided:

"Although the Uber vehicle and its human backup could be at fault, it may turn out that there was nothing either could have done to stop the crash, he said."

To me, there's been nothing to determine who was at fault. I also read where the pedestrian was walking her bike outside the crosswalk.

Spot on Wylie. So many passing judgement before it has even been determined if a car operated solely by a human could have avoided this collision.

Pete

[Bob Denman]

I wonder if the Uber-car was busy testing IBM's Watson?

[RinconRyder]

In other words... unless the passenger has a checkered past: no felons were involved in this one!

No passenger.

[RinconRyder]

Rincon,

Sounds like your putting the cart before the horse. This is from the link you provided:

"Although the Uber vehicle and its human backup could be at fault, it may turn out that there was nothing either could have done to stop the crash, he said."

To me, there's been nothing to determine who was at fault. I also read where the pedestrian was walking her bike outside the crosswalk.

That quote came from the local police, not me. But in AZ, if you step off the curb into traffic and are not in a crosswalk, and then get hit by a vehicle as long as the vehicle/driver was not violating any rules of the road at the time the fault lies with the pedestrian. You must give adequate time for an oncoming vehicle to slow or stop before stepping into his right of way.

This accident was described as the pedestrian stepping into the traffic lane from the shadows.

[canamjhb]

The latest report is a video (not yet released to the public) shows the victim darting out in front of the Uber. Again, I will withhold judgment until all the facts are released. But for now, it is starting to look like an unavoidable accident under any circumstance.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

This accident was described as the pedestrian stepping into the traffic lane from the shadows.

The news reports say this happened at about 10 PM. AZ does not observe Daylight Saving Time so it could be fairly dark by then. When you take into consideration lights from all directions, shadows, dark objects in darkness, etc., it may turn out that the image processing s/w used for the car may have a lot of needed refinement. This might be a case where the ped was not discernible against a dark background. Maybe blinding headlights were aimed directly at the Uber car. Night driving just may be the bane of driverless cars. It'll be interesting to see what the investigators come up with.

Someone above said the car was traveling at 80 mph. News reports I saw this morning say 40 mph which sounds a lot more realistic.

[RinconRyder]

The news reports say this happened at about 10 PM. AZ does not observe Daylight Saving Time so it could be fairly dark by then. It is absolutely dark by 10 PM in AZ now. There would have been some light from the intersection but not necessarily in the proper direction to illuminate the area where the pedestrian emerged.

Someone above said the car was traveling at 80 mph. News reports I saw this morning say 40 mph which sounds a lot more realistic.
Reports from the local police here have said consistently the vehicle was traveling at approximately 40 mph.

Also, the impact damage on the front of the Volvo SUV was on the extreme passenger side suggesting that the pedestrian may not have been within the car's radar range or, at least, the time was too short for the car to avert the collision.

EDIT: I am revising my earlier opinion on this collision. The woman was walk from left to right across a multi lane roadway. There is adequate time for an automated radar to pick her up. There may not have been enough time for the vehicle to stop but reports here are stating the vehicle made no effort to brake and that is the important fact. After reviewing the video dozens of times it appears there was at least 1.5 seconds available for the vehicle to react to an object in front of it - and it did not do that. And that is the elephant in the room.