Self-Driving Shuttle Involved In Crash Two Hours After Debut (www.cbc.ca)

New submitter Northern Pike writes: Las Vegas roll out of new driver-less shuttle spoiled by human error. It sounds like the shuttle did what it was designed to do but the human semi driver wasn't as careful. "The shuttle did what it was supposed to do, in that it's (sic) sensors registered the truck and the shuttle stopped to avoid the accident," the city said in a statement. "Unfortunately the delivery truck did not stop and grazed the front fender of the shuttle. Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided." The self-driving shuttle can transport up to 12 people and has a attendant and computer monitor, but no steering wheel and no brake pedals. It relies heavily on GPS, electronic curb sensors and other technology to make its way.

Comments

Human reaction vs machine reaction

[Tulsa_Time]

I wonder if the shuttle doing the right thing was what the human driver expected.... maybe their algorithms are incompatible.

Re:Human reaction vs machine reaction

[Pentium100]

Also, maybe if the shuttle had a human driver, he would have been more careful near a semi truck and stopped further from it. I assume that the visibility from a big truck is quite poor and keep my distance.

Re:Human reaction vs machine reaction

[Rob Y.]

In any case, unless this was a freaky situation, I'm gonna guess a human driver of the shuttle would've not gotten into the accident. So maybe hitting the brakes and stopping isn't enough of an algorithm to let this thing loose in the real world. Calling this human error is giving the algorithm a bit too much benefit of the doubt.

Re:Human reaction vs machine reaction

[fluffernutter]

I liked part "note if the truck had the same technology the accident wouldn't have happened". Why the hell does that even matter? Obviously self driving cars aren't going to work unless they can drive with humans.

Re:Human reaction vs machine reaction

[ShanghaiBill]

Trouble is....I can see it coming....there will be movement to get human driving of cars made illegal and then ONLY AI vehicles will be able to run on the public roads.

This will be a GOOD THING. Once we get the humans off the road, we can make lanes narrower, traffic will flow more smoothly, cars can be made lighter, and traffic lights can be eliminated.

A sad day, as that I just bought a new FUN driving car yesterday.

Why should my tax dollars subsidize your hobby? If you want to drive, do it on a private track.

Re:Human reaction vs machine reaction

[mysidia]

Based on the picture; the shuttle should have been cited for pulling up too close to a vehicle moving in conflicting direction to cause a crash, not the truck driver --- sometimes the officer at the scene gets it wrong.

You DON'T pull up to obstruct the passage of the FRONT of a vehicle that is backing up, as the driver will clearly be looking at the path behind their vehicle, not at their front tire section, and you will get hit.

Not ready yet.

[Fly Swatter]

Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided.

If the shuttle had the same sensing equipment as the truck has the accident would have been avoided (ftfy). A human would have laid into the horn as the truck got closer to alert him hes about to hit someone. A human would also have seen the truck backing in and yielded a larger room for error. An alert human may also see the situation that they could quickly back up a bit before the truck hit them. (per article trucker was cited for illegal backing (up?). This isn't ready in my opinion, but a nice alpha test though.

Re:Not ready yet.

[fluffernutter]

The problem is, autonomous vehicles don't have fear. They need fear of financial or physical harm in order to drive like humans.

Bullshit

[Rick Schumann]

Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided."

If the shuttle had a human driver the entire incident would never have happened because the half-assed excuse for 'AI' they keep trotting out can't actually THINK.