
Watch the moment a self-driving Google car sideswipes a bus - yoda_sl
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/9/11186072/google-self-driving-car-bus-crash-video
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cmurf
There's no way I would have pulled out in front of a bus (or even a car or
cyclist) like this; there was barely a gap between the bus and the car in
front of the bus, into which the Google car poked its nose. It's probably just
an edge case, but I agree with the other post that the parked car has no
rights, and no expectation anyone in lane will yield.

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IvyMike
> the car "predicted that [the bus] would yield to us because we were ahead of
> it."

> the bus was only going 15 miles per hour, while the SUV was moving at just 2
> mph.

Watching the video, it looks like Google's plan was to jump out in front of
the bus and cut it off. Even had it not resulted in a crash... are they
teaching Google to be a bad driver?

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cpncrunch
>Watching the video, it looks like Google's plan was to jump out in front of
the bus and cut it off

It doesn't look like it even did that. It's just barely moving, and it's
debatable whether the bus driver even saw it actually moving. If I was the
driver behind, I would assume the the SUV was just signalling to move out, but
was going to wait for me to pass. If I was passing in a car then obviously I
would take evasive action, but the bus driver likely never even noticed.

It looks like google's car logic is slightly flawed. The car should either
make a decisive move, or stay put. Creeping into a lane of faster moving
traffic at 2mph is a somewhat ridiculous plan of action.

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maerF0x0
I'm super pro-autonomous vehicles. I believe they will save far more lives
than harm. But WTF, its like the rules engine had an incorrect entry. When
you're leaving the curb lane (parked) you basically have no rights. Just wait
for it to be clear. Maybe Google is starting to teach it more than the rules,
but also the "rules of thumb" like if you gun it in front of a car, they'll
brake a little.

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julie1
Okay, you can be super pro autonomous but the problem is not technical.

Who is liable in case of accident (financially and legally)?

The car (no legal existence), the algorithm (no legal existence) a developer
doing a library that fails and has been used without is knowledge (nop), the
developer integrating without control (nop), the scrum master who pushed a bad
choice? the financial director for not caring about the cost of risks? The CTO
.... no one is liable. Liability is diluted.

Who will pay when people will die?

And given VW dieselgate, RSA weakening of crypto, the actual world does not
seems to support software engineers caring about their users or regulations.

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maerF0x0
I see no reason why liability doesnt follow just like (afaik) all tech does.

When I use my computer, if it malfunctions and hurts someone, its the
manufacturers fault (think DELL w/ bad batteries), if an engineer was deeply
negligent they may take on liability, but generally the company. If I use my
computer for bad I am liable. So on and so forth to wherever the source of the
fault is.

~~~
julie1
People like my mother are losing an astounding amount of work because of
poorly designed interfaces.

My mother that still has an economical activity is losing money with modern
technologies. And no one is liable.

It is is the "user's fault". The keyboard chair bug.

If also so many people get fucked by the oldest trick on earth of executing
arbitrary software by trusting an unknown source it is clearly an information
problem.

Either the industry is unable to make the information clear, or the
information presented is not adapted to human beings.

In both cases, given the number of victims and money lost do you really think
that this industry considers itself liable? Users are treated guilty by
default in the mind of the companies.

The PR of IT is that all the bugs from software is the fault of the users. It
is denial.

We (software industry) are the root cause some people lose money and no one
can sue us for this.

Because we impress them with our confidence. And they believe us.

