Self Driving Cars: Arizona incident just minor setback.

By now we have all heard about the incident between an Uber Self Driving Car and a pedestrian in Arizona.  Testing has been halted by some manufacturers, but I don’t think this will be the end of autonomous cars.

Uber has been under fire for many many things in the last year or so, there was the controversy with their CEO, driver strikes and more.  The most recent though, is the crash that occurred between an Uber Self Driving Car and a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona.  Unfortunately, the pedestrian lost their life.  This is the first instance of a self driving car killing a pedestrian.

This incident has caused the media to call the safety of self driving cars subpar and has been a talking point for driving enthusiasts.  Believe me, I would love for this to be the end of self driving cars.  I dread a self driving future as evidenced here.

As the story is coming out, I have to defend the car’s safety.  I dont want to, but I have to.

Tempe Police was fairly quick to release the video of the crash from start to finish.  Beware: the video cuts off directly before impact but could still be found disturbing.  It is very much worth putting in this post, however.

As you can see, everything happened incredibly quickly and in a fairly dimly lit area.  I firmly believe this would have been the exact same outcome if a person had been driving.  The car just cannot stop in time.  If you assume each white stripe in the video is about 10 feet with 25-30 feet in between, the car would have to stop in about 50-60 feet.  2 lines and one and a half space are seen in the video from the time the individual is seen to the time of impact.  An average car takes about 118 feet to stop from this cars speed of 40 mph.  In other words, not even the best human driver could have avoided this crash.

On the other hand…

Autonomous car manufacturers and testers have claimed from the start that the tech is safer than a human driver due to its ability to see further.  This is due to advance cameras, RADAR and LIDAR sensors which help the car see in the dark.  This should have helped counter some of the stopping distance issues, however, reports show this car did not slow down significantly.

I don’t want to tell you what you should think, opinions on autonomous cars should be formed on your own.

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My opinion is these cars should be tested more heavily in safe, enclosed spaces.  The tech has progressed quickly and maybe shouldn’t be on the roads quite yet.  Also, UBER and ridesharing services shouldn’t necessarily be the ones testing the technology.

All in all, this will just be a minor set back for self driving vehicles.   As much as I don’t like it, this future is unavoidable.