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California May Soon Allow Passengers In Driverless Cars (reuters.com)
According to Reuters, California's public utility regulator on Friday signaled it would allow passengers to ride in self-driving cars without a backup driver in the vehicle. It is a big step forward for autonomous car developers, especially as the industry faces heightened scrutiny over safety concerns. From the report: The California Public Utilities Commission, the body that regulates utilities including transportation companies such as ride-hailing apps, issued a proposal that could clear the way for companies such as Alphabet's Waymo and General Motors to give members of the public a ride in a self-driving car without any backup driver present, which has been the practice of most companies so far. The California Department of Motor Vehicles had already issued rules allowing for autonomous vehicle testing without drivers, which took effect this week. The commission said its proposed rules complement the existing DMV rules but provide additional protections for passengers. The proposal, which is set to be voted on at the commission's meeting next month, would clear the way for autonomous vehicle companies to do more testing and get the public more closely acquainted with driverless cars in a state that has closely regulated the industry. It also comes as regulators across the country are taking a harder look at self-driving cars in the aftermath of a crash in Arizona that killed a pedestrian.
How can you do this after what just happened?
Nothing will happen to the passengers in the cars . . .
. . . it's the pedestrians that will have the problems.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Completely fucking crazy? How can you do this after what just happened? What is wrong with these animals?
Logic and rationality, apparently.
They note an enormous increase in safety when cars are autonomous, want to be on the forefront of a developing technology that has benefits to society, and aren't swayed by the daily panic dished out in the media.
Or in other words, they take a measured, considered approach instead of running around panicky with quick fixes.
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Also, why doesn't it have to to a vision test? For a self driving car, it should be able to operate on two out of three sensing mechanisms in all conditions.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I've probably driven as many miles in my life as Uber has with all their cars. Probably much more, and absolutely in many more conditions than these companies would ever think of driving in. I've never driven at full speed into a pedestrian in a well lit street. I'm sure may people here could say the same. This applies to the other car companies as well. The people on Slashdot have probably driven equal to Tesla's 100 million miles in their life and none have killed themselves on a concrete divider. Humans drive 3.22 trillion miles a year. That is a very big number compared to self-driving 'experience' to date, and an important part of understanding how safe humans really are. Three deaths at this point are enough to make self driving very much more dangerous than humans when put into perspective of miles driven. Especially when you add to that perspective that self-driving companies get to pick when and where they drive. Even Autopilot only activates in conditions it deems 'safe'.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Depending on whose numbers you believe, the National Safety Council says that the U.S. average is 1.25 deaths per 100 million miles. So that number is in the ballpark.
However, your estimate of the number of autopilot miles is probably about an order of magnitude low. There are news articles from late 2016 claiming over 300 million miles traveled with autopilot/autosteer active. If it's not at least half a billion by now, I'd be surprised, and I wouldn't be shocked if it hit a solid billion already.
So if you ignore Waymo (too small a sample size) and Uber (trying to deploy FSD before their tech was ready), and concentrate only on Tesla, that's a pretty sizable drop in fatalities — around a factor of 5–10.
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