Human Driver Could Have Avoided Fatal Uber Crash, Experts Say (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: The pedestrian killed Sunday by a self-driving Uber SUV had crossed at least one open lane of road before being hit, according to a video of the crash that raises new questions about autonomous-vehicle technology. Forensic crash analysts who reviewed the video said a human driver could have responded more quickly to the situation, potentially saving the life of the victim, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. Other experts said Uber's self-driving sensors should have detected the pedestrian as she walked a bicycle across the open road at 10 p.m., despite the dark conditions. Herzberg's death is the first major test of a nascent autonomous vehicle industry that has presented the technology as safer than humans who often get distracted while driving. For human driving in the U.S., there's roughly one death every 86 million miles, while autonomous vehicles have driven no more than 15 to 20 million miles in the country so far, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. "As an ever greater number of autonomous vehicles drive ever an ever greater number of miles, investors must contemplate a legal and ethical landscape that may be difficult to predict," the analysts wrote in a research note following the Sunday collision. "The stock market is likely too aggressive on the pace of adoption."

Comments

I probably would have hit her

[ZorinLynx]

Based on the video I saw, she was practically invisible until she entered the car's headlight beams. The road was poorly lit, and she had dark clothing, no reflectors on the bike and no lights.

I don't see how I could have stopped or swerved in time to avoid her in that brief window.

Believe me, I don't care for self-driving cars at all, but I have to remain unbiased here because I know I would have hit her in the same situation.

Be safe out there, people. Put lights on your bike or yourself when you're out there on the road at night.

Re:I probably would have hit her

[AmiMoJo]

It's the sensor failures that really worry me. Radar should have seen her, the lidar should have seen her. The cameras should have seen her - most autonomous cars use cameras with some IR vision capability so they can see at night.

The cameras on my Nissan Leaf have better night vision than the one in the video, which makes me think it's not the one the system uses.

That's video

[Anonymous Coward]

....she was practically invisible until she entered the car's headlight beams

Human vision is MUCH more sensitive than cameras. What looks dark in the video wouldn't be so bad to a human. That's why they use all those lights when shooting video.

So, it wasn't as dark as it appears.

Re:She fucking Darwined herself

[dabadab]

It looks like a crossing (and it certainly should be) but it's actually not:
streetview