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Automatic Brakes Stopped Berlin Truck During Christmas Market Attack (dw.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Deutsche Welle: The truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12, came to a halt due an automatic braking system, according to German media reports on Wednesday. The automatic braking system potentially saved the lives of many more people in the recent terrorist attack. An investigation by newspaper "Suddeutsche Zeitung" and broadcasters "NDR" and "WDR" found the Scania R 450 semi-trailer stopped after between 70 and 80 meters (250 feet). The system was reportedly engaged after sensing a collision. Previous reports speculated that the truck had driven erratically and stopped due to the heroic actions of the truck's Polish driver, who lay fatally wounded in the cabin. In 2012 the European Union adopted regulations requiring all new trucks exceeding 3,500 kilograms be fitted with advanced emergency braking systems. The systems initially alert drivers and then take evasive action. The regulation was adopted to reduce the number of rear end collisions by trucks.

8 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Double edged sword by Trachman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Could have stopped. Should have stopped.... Technology is evolving fast.

    If this technologically non-savvy terrorist had no idea about automated braking, just think about technologically savvy terrorist who will be able to program automatic trucks to ignore collision by hacking certain sensors. We are talking about automatic road killing robot.

    How would you stop such autonomous cargo truck with no driver to shoot at?

    1. Re:Double edged sword by mysidia · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Need to keep ahead of them by making mandatory Automatic self-testing with Error memory until serviced by a certified shop And monitoring of line pressure and devices, at least at engine start, periodically when idling or running at low speed, when initially accelerating from a full stop, And Failsafe Interlocks to the automatic braking systems To prevent applying power after an error is detected in the braking system.

      If the braking system fails to self-test, or Auto-braking has engaged but accelerator still pushed, then the engine computer will throttle the engine down to Zero and if accelerating after 1 second, kill drive power.

    2. Re:Double edged sword by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      1. There have not been "hoards" of Muslim hoodlums entering Germany. Most of the refugees are actually fleeing Islamic terrorists.

      2. The guy had his asylum application processed in good time. The problem was they could not deport him because his country would not take him back.

      3. The falling is that the security services knew about him but didn't stop him.

      This does not warrant your extreme, xenophobic reaction.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Double edged sword by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is not a duck. Because all ducks are peaceful. It is probably Putin or alt-right, and don't underestimate fake news!

  2. Re:SubjectIsSubject by goose-incarnated · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Quran (5:51) - "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people."

    And I'm pretty sure that the Old Testament says that kids who sass their parents should be put to death. Not to mention the large number of "abominations" outside of being gay that are routinely ignored in Leviticus.

    You are comparing a book that is routinely ignored with a book that is routinely followed.

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  3. Re:SubjectIsSubject by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure both books are routinely ignored.

    I went to school with a number of Muslim students. They didn't attack me, or condemn me, or anything like that. I was actually in a study group with a couple of them for one semester. And at least one of them routinely ignored the Koran's prohibition on drinking.

    I worked with at least one Muslim co-worker at my last job. He didn't attack me, or condemn me, or anything like that. I had a number of Muslim customers (including at least one who converted to Islam). None of them attacked me, or condemned me, or anything like that.

    There are an estimated 3.3 million Muslims living in the U.S. I think we would have noticed if most of them were routinely attacking Christians.

    It is not the religion, per se, that is the problem. It is fundamentalists or extremists who claim to be part of the religion that are the problem.

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  4. terrorism and intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Fortunately you have to be kind of an idiot to want to murder people like this anyway.

    There's some evidence to suggest otherwise:

    Which academic pursuit has been the most prevalent among Islamic jihadis?

    It’s not the oddest question to come up at a dinner party, especially at the University of Oxford. But when it comes up between a Middle East expert and a sociologist, idle talk yields to a quest for data. That’s how political scientist Steffen Hertog and sociology professor Diego Gambetta soon found themselves poring through records of 404 people from 30 countries engaged in political violence between 2005 and 2007. Their answer? Engineering.

    Of the 178 whose academic focus could be ascertained, 44 percent of those were engineers—most of them in electrical engineering, civil engineering, and computer studies. The next-largest group, Islamic studies, had fewer than half as many, at 19 percent [see table below, ”Fields of Study”].

    * http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/extremist-engineers

  5. Re:You gave Trump's plan by lgw · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The difference is: the Bible has a New Testament. It's primary message? Scripture can be hard to interpret, so if you think it's telling you to hurt someone, that's how you know you're reading it wrong. That Jesus guy just wouldn't shut up about this: turn the other cheek, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, etc., etc.

    The Koran desperately needs its own New Testament, just as Islam desperately needs it's own Reformation. That can only happen from within, of course, but we should recognize it for what it is.

    Just in 2016 there were 2455 Islamic attacks in 60 countries, in which 21152 people were killed and 26499 injured. If that number surprises you, it's because the western press doesn't care to report attacks without western victims. Your false equivalence is obvious and foolish.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.