Self-driving is way harder than I thought

[dlockhart]

[Bill Douglas]

A few deaths later "Who'd have thought."

[GH85Carrera]

It is pretty evident that driving is hard. Thousands of humans crash every single day just in the USA. Mostly morons, and people that should never have a license, but lots of people that think they are actually intelligent crash. I am often astonished at what I see other driver do. I just try hard to stay out of their way and get to my destination, and back home. Put down the damn cell phone, and drive is my mantra for most other drivers out there. And no, I don't use my phone and drive, I pay attention to the road, all the time.

[cstreit]

I wonder if we compared self-driving miles to human driven miles - who would have the better track record. Not a leading question - I'd like to know. I'm not sure I could turn my life over to a car yet.

[GH85Carrera]

I just wonder who and how they write the decision making algorithms. When a car has to decide on saving the owner of the car, or the person or people standing in the road. Does the car drive into a tree and save the others, or kill them and save the car owner?

Now change it to a cat or dog in the road. Same question. Lots of people crash from swerving trying to not hit a squirrel. How does the car decide those things?

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I just wonder who and how they write the decision making algorithms. When a car has to decide on saving the owner of the car, or the person or people standing in the road. Does the car drive into a tree and save the others, or kill them and save the car owner?

Now change it to a cat or dog in the road. Same question. Lots of people crash from swerving trying to not hit a squirrel. How does the car decide those things?

This is like the old morality question... Lets say you're in a car with no brakes. There is a woman with a baby in your path - and on the sidewalk a man.

You can swerve onto the sidewalk and miss the woman and baby, but then you kill the guy. However in this case - you have actively chosen to kill him - vs. doing nothing and killing the mother and child.

What do you do?

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by cstreit

This is like the old morality question... Lets say you're in a car with no brakes. There is a woman with a baby in your path - and on the sidewalk a man.

You can swerve onto the sidewalk and miss the woman and baby, but then you kill the guy. However in this case - you have actively chosen to kill him - vs. doing nothing and killing the mother and child.

What do you do?

I can hear an old professor of mine:

"You are driving a car with no brakes? Get out of my class!"

He would then smile and ask us to ask questions:

"Do you know the woman and child, are you married to her?"

"The man, do you know him?"

"Does the horn work - use in time? Which is farther away, the man or the woman and child?"

The man is on a side walk, the woman in a road - drive around them or into a building."

"Can you turn off the car, down shift (this was a while ago) or jam into park/reverse."

On and on. I miss Professor Joe.

I can tell you that the automation that goes into auto pilots and autonomous aircraft is a cakewalk compared to the self-driving problem.

[GH85Carrera]

One of my co-workers was badly injured when she swerved to miss a dog. She drove off the road and totaled her car. No sane person would not try to avoid a dog if possible, but I sure will never crash from trying to avoid one. I honestly can't say what I would do if it was a human. I tend to not drive fast in neighborhoods and I always pay attention to the road ahead and potential hazards and not other things that are irrelevant.