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from the what-happens^W-crashes-in-Vegas... dept.
Back in 2017, Las Vegas' self-driving shuttle service got into a minor collision after just an hour into its year-long trial. While it truly was a minor incident and nobody got hurt, the fact that an autonomous vehicle was involved prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to launch a probe. Now, the agency has wrapped up its investigation and has revealed two probable causes for the incident. First is that the truck that collided with the shuttle didn't stop when it was supposed to, which is consistent with the local government's claim after the accident. The other is that the autonomous vehicle attendant didn't have easy access to the shuttle's manual controller.
Apparently, the truck driver thought the shuttle would stop at a "reasonable" distance from the truck. Although the shuttle did start slowing down when it was 98.4 feet away, it's not programmed to stop until it's only 9.8 feet away from obstacles. The attendant hit the emergency stop button when the vehicle was 10.2 feet away from the truck, but it clearly wasn't enough to prevent the incident.
In an interview with the investigators, the attendant said they considered switching to manual mode to move the shuttle out of the way, but they didn't have easy access to its handheld controller. [...] When the accident happened, the controller was stored in an enclosed space at one end of the passenger compartment.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/12/las-vegas-autonomous-shuttle-crash-probe/
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday July 14 2019, @03:38AM (1 child)
Thanks, mod-point-giving AC. :)
How about this explanation: as an engineer, the #1 thing I'm supposed to have on my resume is NOT how I improved a product, but how I cheapened, er, sorry, cost-minimized, something. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about efficiency in all ways, but the cost-cutting pressure never lets up.
At most jobs I've had the prevailing pressure from management was to push things out the door. This is making me grouchy- I'll write more another time when I'm not so very tired.
I'll add this: rumor has it that in the 1960s, IBM invented "vaporware" - promised things that did not yet exist, during sales negotiations and written into contracts. Not sure if that's true, but I've worked at companies that did that. I actually love a challenge, but not the pressure. I'm remembering some jovial salesmen who would sheepishly approach me after a tradeshow saying, "sorry, but I sold XYZ idea I had. Can we make that? Please please please?" His approach always worked with me, but some others not so much.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @04:33AM
Long before IBM in the 1960s.
My father worked at Vought before WWII. When the Navy requested bids for new carrier based planes, Vought proposed two designs and expected that the more conventional would win the competition. Instead the "vaporware" F4U Corsair gull wing concept won (although it was proposed as eye candy)...and then they had to make it work. There were many, many problems that the engineers and flight test staff had to sort (not many known outside the company), but eventually it was made into a very good aircraft.