How Autonomous Cars' Safety Features Clash With Normal Driving

An anonymous reader writes: Google's autonomous cars have a very good safety record so far — the accidents they've been involved in weren't the software's fault. But that doesn't mean the cars are blending seamlessly into traffic. A NY Times article explains how doing the safest thing sometimes means doing something entirely unexpected to real, human drivers — which itself can lead to dangerous situations. "One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn't get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other (human) drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward, looking for the advantage — paralyzing Google's robot." There are also situations in which the software's behavior may be so incomprehensible to human passengers that they end up turning it off. "In one maneuver, it swerved sharply in a residential neighborhood to avoid a car that was poorly parked, so much so that the Google sensors couldn't tell if it might pull into traffic."

Comments

Re: In other news

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd think, as a pedestrian, you'd prefer to have self-walking shoes.

Re: culture dependent

[fisted]

I'm color blind, you insensitive clod. It's called fucking the middle grey.

Re:Poor example

[Boronx]

It's not a traffic circle without a million dollar island complete with shrubbery.