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posted by cmn32480 on Monday March 27 2017, @01:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-is-everybody-else-you-have-to-watch-out-for dept.

More bad news for Uber: one of the ride-hailing giant's self-driving Volvo SUVs has been involved in a crash in Arizona — apparently leaving the vehicle flipped onto its side, and with damage to at least two other human-driven cars in the vicinity.

The aftermath of the accident is pictured in photos and a video posted to Twitter by a user of @FrescoNews, a service for selling content to news outlets. According to the company's tweets, the collision happened in Tempe, Arizona, and no injuries have yet been reported.

Uber has also confirmed the accident and the veracity of the photos to Bloomberg. We've reached out to the company with questions and will update this story with any response. Update: Uber has now provided us with the following statement: "We are continuing to look into this incident and can confirm we had no backseat passengers in the vehicle."

TechCrunch understands Uber's self-driving fleet in Arizona has been grounded, following the incident, while an investigation is undertaken. The company has confirmed the vehicle involved in the incident was in self-driving mode. We're told no one was seriously injured.

Local newspaper reports suggest another car failed to yield to Uber's SUV, hitting it and resulting in the autonomous vehicle flipping onto its side. Presumably the Uber driver was unable to take over the controls in time to prevent the accident.

Source: TechCrunch


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  • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday March 27 2017, @07:30PM (3 children)

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday March 27 2017, @07:30PM (#484816)

    My current vehicle (bicycle) is pointless if retrofitted to remove the driver.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 27 2017, @09:29PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 27 2017, @09:29PM (#484892) Journal

    In a post self driving car world, things could get a lot better for pedestrians and bicyclists.

    In a 100% self driving car world we don't need stop signs or traffic signals. Cars going multiple directions could use the intersection at the same time if they can coordinate their efforts.

    But wait! Pedestrians and bicyclists. First thought: the "walk" button on the crosswalk of traffic signals would be for pedestrians and bicyclists. Otherwise, the traffic lights could be green in multiple directions at once. But what about stop signs? It would be a pain for cars to have to needlessly stop at stop signs.

    What if crosswalks could recognize the approach of pedestrians / bicycles / strollers / etc, and adjust the traffic of the self driving vehicles accordingly.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday March 27 2017, @09:36PM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday March 27 2017, @09:36PM (#484898)

      There is a school of thought that bicycles should emulate (slow moving) vehicles as closely as practical.

      I have on occasionally treated a red light that fails to trigger as a 4-way stop (inoperative signal); rather than lean over, push the button, and wait up to 124 seconds.

      (You are only supposed to have to wait up to 120 seconds, but the light cycle is another 4 seconds -- timed it once when sceptical of a sign claiming the wait was only 120s)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:50AM (#484996)

    > My current vehicle (bicycle) is pointless if retrofitted to remove the driver.

    Well, it might count as art? https://figshare.com/articles/Towards_a_maximally-robust_self-balancing_robotic_bicycle_without_reaction-moment_gyroscopes_nor_reaction_wheels/3976596 [figshare.com] Full pdf for download. Describes an autonomous electric bicycle that may eventually roll around the Cornell University campus...just because it can!