Uber's Self-Driving Car Saw Pedestrian 6 Seconds Before Fatal Strike, Says Report (tucson.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Arizona Daily Star: The autonomous Uber SUV that struck and killed an Arizona pedestrian in March spotted the woman about six seconds before hitting her, but did not stop because the system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled, according to federal investigators. In a preliminary report on the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that emergency braking is not enabled while Uber's cars are under computer control, "to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior." Instead, Uber relies on a human backup driver to intervene. The system, however, is not designed to alert the driver. The report comes a day after Uber announced it will be ending it's self-driving vehicle testing in Arizona. The full NTSB report is available here.

Comments

Right of Way laws are political, not logical.

[Anonymous Coward]

The laws of man are not the laws of nature.

The logical conclusion is that a large, mobile contraption of rubber, steel, plastic, and controlled explosions gets the right of way; a pedestrians must be responsible for ensuring his own safety. This is the same logic that gives way to the common sense inherent in "private" endeavors such as white water rafting, for example: If you're in a kayak, you know the rule: A bulky, poorly maneuvered raft of 8 people has the right of way.

Of course, a politician wins votes by pandering to the unwashed masses, most of whom are probably pedestrians on account of the cost of owning a car. The result is that bureaucrats craft entitlements that trick people into believing that a "walk symbol" has magically reconfigured the laws of physics in favor of their absolute safety.

Look both ways, folks. Whether the driver is a computer or a human, you are in danger.