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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.
The story says it stopped moving and the truck backed into it. I wonder if there was a horn option in the software.
.sigs suck, thus nothing here.
2) Robotic vehicles would benefit from the addition of a mechanical arm with a mechanical middle finger
If you are an asshole and pull up to a truck in such a way that he cannot continue the maneuver he was trying to perform, which would have gotten him out of your way, then you deserve the finger, not the truck driver.
If a large truck is making a right turn and has moved into the left lane so he could accomplish that without running over the curb or other cars, it is an asshole who pulls up as far as he can go in the right lane to prevent the truck from completing the turn and causing a traffic jam, even if the car in the right lane technically has the right of way over the truck. Unfortunately, "asshole" is not a ticketable offense.
A human would have identified the situation and remained clear. The AI assumed it had the right of way and did not. It doesn't matter in the end if the AI did or did not have the right of way, proper defensive driving would have prevent the accident altogether. "Being right" isn't always better than "being safe".
As to the snarky comment by someone else that going a couple of hours in Las Vegas without a fender bender is better than humans can do, I'll just point out that I've driven for hundreds of hours in Las Vegas and have neither run into anyone else, nor have I had anyone run into me.