SoylentNews

First Autonomous Car Death Reportedly Caused by Faulty Software

posted by takyon on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:11PM   
from the false-negative dept.

Justin Case writes:

The first machine to kill a human entirely on its own initiative was "Likely Caused By Software Set to Ignore Objects On Road" according to a new report on the collision which happened last March:

The car's sensors detected the pedestrian, who was crossing the street with a bicycle, but Uber's software decided it didn't need to react right away. That's a result of how the software was tuned. Like other autonomous vehicle systems, Uber's software has the ability to ignore "false positives," or objects in its path that wouldn't actually be a problem for the vehicle, such as a plastic bag floating over a road. In this case, Uber executives believe the company's system was tuned so that it reacted less to such objects. But the tuning went too far, and the car didn't react fast enough, one of these people said.

Fast enough? She walked across three and a half lanes in what should have been plain view of the car's LIDAR the entire time.

takyon: Also at Reuters. Older report at The Drive.

Previously: Uber Pulls Self-Driving Cars After First Fatal Crash of Autonomous Vehicle
Video Released of Fatal Uber - Pedestrian Accident, and More

---

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

• campus instead campus instead (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:33PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @04:33PM (#677082)

  they should be testing these on google or microsoft campuses instead. with or without prior warning.

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+3
  Funny=2, Touché=1, Total=3
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		3

• Re:campus instead (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @05:18PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 08 2018, @05:18PM (#677096)

  Yes please, test on various tech company campuses.

  I like to ride my bicycle near the edge of the road (we have wide shoulders in much of NY State), but recent articles in the bicycling press indicate that none of the self driving car developers take cyclists into account. Efforts from bicycle advocates (trying to move people from cars to bikes) to work with Uber and others have been stonewalled. In some states there are even minimum distance passing regulations (like 4 feet between car and bicycle)--none of that is in the Uber software.

  I'm just glad that (as far as I can tell), no one is testing these cars around here.

  Parent