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posted by janrinok on Saturday May 26 2018, @12:19AM   Printer-friendly

Uber Self-Driving Car That Struck, Killed Pedestrian Wasn't Set To Stop In An Emergency

An Uber Technologies Inc. car involved in a deadly crash in Arizona wasn’t designed to automatically brake in case of an emergency, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report on the accident.

The self-driving car, which was being tested on a public road with a human operator, struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona in March. Uber said Wednesday that it was closing down its self-driving vehicle program in the state, two months after Arizona barred it from road-testing the technology.

NTSB Preliminary Report Released

The NTSB has released a preliminary report on the Uber pedestrian accident in Arizona. This is being reported widely, but it took a little digging to find the actual report, which is linked from the NTSB press release at: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20180524.aspx The PDF report, 3-1/2 pages with several illustrations, can be downloaded directly with https://goo.gl/2C6ZCH

From the second page of the report:

Uber had equipped the test vehicle with a developmental self-driving system. The system consisted of forward- and side-facing cameras, radars, LIDAR, navigation sensors, and a computing and data storage unit integrated into the vehicle. 1 Uber had also equipped the vehicle with an aftermarket camera system that was mounted in the windshield and rear window and that provided additional front and rear videos, along with an inward-facing view of the vehicle operator. In total, 10 camera views were recorded over the course of the entire trip.

The self-driving system relies on an underlying map that establishes speed limits and permissible lanes of travel. The system has two distinct control modes: computer control and manual control. The operator can engage computer control by first enabling, then engaging the system in a sequence similar to activating cruise control. The operator can transition from computer control to manual control by providing input to the steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal, a disengage button, or a disable button.

The vehicle was factory equipped with several advanced driver assistance functions by Volvo Cars, the original manufacturer. The systems included a collision avoidance function with automatic emergency braking, known as City Safety, as well as functions for detecting driver alertness and road sign information. All these Volvo functions are disabled when the test vehicle is operated in computer control but are operational when the vehicle is operated in manual control.

According to Uber, the developmental self-driving system relies on an attentive operator to intervene if the system fails to perform appropriately during testing. In addition, the operator is responsible for monitoring diagnostic messages that appear on an interface in the center stack of the vehicle dash and tagging events of interest for subsequent review.

On the night of the crash, the operator departed Uber's garage with the vehicle at 9:14 p.m. to run an established test route. At the time of the crash, the vehicle was traveling on its second loop of the test route and had been in computer control since 9:39 p.m. (i.e., for the preceding 19 minutes).

According to data obtained from the self-driving system, the system first registered radar and LIDAR observations of the pedestrian about 6 seconds before impact, when the vehicle was traveling at 43 mph. As the vehicle and pedestrian paths converged, the self-driving system software classified the pedestrian as an unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle with varying expectations of future travel path. At 1.3 seconds before impact, the self-driving system determined that an emergency braking maneuver was needed to mitigate a collision (see figure 2). 2 According to Uber, emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. The vehicle operator is relied on to intervene and take action. The system is not designed to alert the operator.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:25AM (17 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:25AM (#684292) Journal
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:33AM (15 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:33AM (#684297)

    Okay, so that covers the civil side of things, but who got arrested for the criminal negligance and manslaughter?

    Oh, no one? Everyone gets away with it because they threw money at the poor woman's family? And everyone is okay with this? Where are the pitchforks and torches in California? Why hasn't some do-gooder strung up the CEO Mussolini style? What the fuck is wrong with you assholes? Not YOU, tak, but you, society. You shitbags screech when a clump of cells gets aborted. You screech when someone gets the death penalty, or some drugged up failure shoots a bunch of brats at a school, but when a CORPORATION does it, well, that's "just the price of progress" or what the fuck ever you have to tell yourselves to delude yourselves enough to be able to go to sleep at night thinking you're not just as much a part of the problem for just letting this go.

    I need to register a fucking corporation so that I can go around killing people too I guess.

    • (Score: 2, Troll) by frojack on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:39AM (12 children)

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:39AM (#684301) Journal

      Nice rant, but the accident was in Arizona.

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      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 26 2018, @07:27AM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 26 2018, @07:27AM (#684405) Journal

        There you go again, spoiling a good rant by introducing facts....

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @07:47AM (9 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @07:47AM (#684408)

        Yes. Yes it was. However, Uber Headquarters is not in Arizona. Uber Headquarters is in San Francisco. If you were to march upon Uber Headquarters in Arizona, I would imagine that you would get a lot of confused looks, and suggestions that you should try San Francisco. I suppose you cannot understand a map, so I'll let you know that San Francisco is a city in California. Maps are tricky for people nowadays somehow, and that's a pretty good thing to know because it's a big city, and shit. Really, trying to protest anything in Arizona relevant to this is as much of a waste of time as Occupy Wall Street was for doing anything actually in New York instead of Fucking Shithole Jersey. The general amount of waste of time there is roughly 100%. So it goes.

        But still it is good to know that a corporation can commit manslaughter and the world collectively shrugs. Verily do you ever deserve everything coming to you.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:08AM (8 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:08AM (#684411)

          Same AC here, still.

          I just wanted really fucking drive it home just how much I shouldn't have to painstaking explain this fucking shit to you. Don't be that fucking stupid. I know you can do better.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:25PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @05:25PM (#684596)

            I just wanted really fucking drive it home just how much I shouldn't have to painstaking explain this fucking shit to you.

            And yet, here we are.

          • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by khallow on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:11PM (6 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:11PM (#684663) Journal
            And I want to point out that you're losing your shit over a single person's death when half a million people die from vehicle accidents each year. Uber's technology has the potential to save a lot of lives (or at least have them die of some else than traffic accidents) in the long run.
            • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday May 27 2018, @02:19AM (3 children)

              by darkfeline (1030) on Sunday May 27 2018, @02:19AM (#684725) Homepage

              Correction: self-driving car technology has the potential to save a lot of lives. Uber's technology will end up killing a lot of people if they continue to test and possibly deploy it if they aren't faced with legal action or experience a miracle, possibly by stealing more engineers and technology from its competitors. Even prior to this incident, it was common for Uber's self-driving cars to ignore red lights, and it apparently ignores foreign objects and pedestrians too.

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              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 27 2018, @03:55AM (2 children)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 27 2018, @03:55AM (#684743) Journal

                Uber's technology will end up killing a lot of people if they continue to test and possibly deploy it if they aren't faced with legal action or experience a miracle, possibly by stealing more engineers and technology from its competitors.

                Didn't say Uber's success was a certainty. Destroying Uber's attempts on rather frivolous grounds means we'll probably see the same go for the others.

                • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday May 28 2018, @10:08PM (1 child)

                  by darkfeline (1030) on Monday May 28 2018, @10:08PM (#685324) Homepage
                  The rather frivolous grounds of their technology provably being complete shit and provably being a danger to public safety? You're right that it may have a chilling effect on the adoption of self-driving cars in general, but Uber's competitors are so much better it isn't even comparable, roughly at least 430 times better using a naive comparison of miles per intervention:

                  Uber’s human drivers had to intervene far more frequently than the drivers of competing autonomous car projects.

                  Waymo, formerly the self-driving car project of Google, said that in tests on roads in California last year, its cars went an average of nearly 5,600 miles before the driver had to take control from the computer to steer out of trouble. As of March, Uber was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per “intervention” in Arizona, according to 100 pages of company documents

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                  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:35AM

                    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 29 2018, @02:35AM (#685408) Journal

                    The rather frivolous grounds of their technology provably being complete shit and provably being a danger to public safety?

                    Where's the proof? You just have one preventable death and an immature technology and testing process which can readily be improved to prevent said preventable deaths in the future.

                    Waymo, formerly the self-driving car project of Google, said that in tests on roads in California last year, its cars went an average of nearly 5,600 miles before the driver had to take control from the computer to steer out of trouble. As of March, Uber was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per “intervention” in Arizona, according to 100 pages of company documents

                    And? You've merely shown here that Uber has room for improvement, not that they can't improve.

            • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @03:13AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 27 2018, @03:13AM (#684737)

              I'm not opposed to self-driving cars or a reduction in automobile deaths. I am opposed to any people existing free from consequences.

              Also, I've got plenty more shit to lose. Stay tuned.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 27 2018, @03:52AM

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 27 2018, @03:52AM (#684742) Journal

                I'm not opposed to self-driving cars or a reduction in automobile deaths. I am opposed to any people existing free from consequences.

                Like consequences for jaywalking across highways at night? And it looks to me like you're quite opposed to those things else you'd be advocating penalties more in line with the actual misdeed.

                Also, I've got plenty more shit to lose. Stay tuned.

                The emotional people always do.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:14AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:14AM (#684413)

        Fuck yourself, kay? Here we are existing in a world where people lose their collective fucking brains because shitbags elected a shitbag to office who said icky things about women and minorities. They visit violence upon their neighbors and anyone else nearby, and that's supposed to be okay, but then someone gets a little upset because a corporation is literally killing people without significant consequence, and suddenly the observer is the asshole?

        No, sir, that is not how things work.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:49PM (#684673)

      I've been following wswswswsws' coverage of the Grenfell fire story. Give Thursday's article [wsws.org] a read-through.

      It's another example of how corporations can commit murder and get away with it. Maybe Uber here was vehicular manslaughter. Grenfell seems more like premeditated murder. How many people will go to jail? Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

      Is it any wonder that people think it's cool to just shoot up schools and shit? Our culture devalues human life, and it couldn't be more clear at this point that transnational corporations or maybe just corporations in general are above the law.

      Oh, but, of course you can't just incorporate yourself and then go on a murder spree! You're not a ruling elite. Only the ruling elites are allowed to do that. Also, another prerequisite seems to be profit somehow. Here the profit motive for your murder spree: you're collecting raw material to sell some wonderful sausage [scaryforkids.com] at a handsome profit.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 27 2018, @04:05AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 27 2018, @04:05AM (#684745) Journal

        It's another example of how corporations can commit murder and get away with it. Maybe Uber here was vehicular manslaughter. Grenfell seems more like premeditated murder. How many people will go to jail? Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

        The corporation in question was the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @03:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @03:05AM (#684326)

    From the CNN/Money link:

    A settlement this soon after a fatal crash is unusual.

    Court cases can often drag on for years. But companies also can try to settle high profile cases quickly to avoid further public attention to a case.