Google self-driving car hits a bus

[grober]

Google said it had now refined its self-driving algorithm.

"From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future."

Google self-driving car hits a bus - BBC News

 

[BoyracerAU]

But I'm Google! Don't you know who I am?

 

[def90cars]

Google car crashes.... makes the news

How many human cars crashed into buses during the same period?

LOADS

 

[Wheelsnuts]

Rather worrying, though. I wonder whether their algorithms cope with entering a motorway?

 

[markjay]

Google car crashes.... makes the news

How many human cars crashed into buses during the same period?

LOADS

Not sure how many Google cars are out there.... but I can't imagine that there are mamy, so probably too few for any comparable statistics.

 

[artyman]

The question is, who is liable in the event of an accident, the (driver), the mechanic who installed the system, the software writer, I don't think I've seen anything about this yet.

 

[markjay]

The question is, who is liable in the event of an accident, the (driver), the mechanic who installed the system, the software writer, I don't think I've seen anything about this yet.

Ah... (new) legal minefield

I would think that for now the situation is no different to when driving with Cruise Control enabled, ie the legal onus is still on the person seating in the driver's seat.

But yes it would be interesting to see how this develops once the occupants have no possibility at all of controlling the car.

 

[markjay]

From Wikipedia:

Crashes

As of July 2015, Google's 23 self-driving cars have been involved in 14 minor collisions on public roads, but Google maintains that in all cases the vehicle itself was not at fault because the cars were either being manually driven or the driver of another vehicle was at fault.

In June 2015, Google founder Sergey Brinconfirmed that there had been 12 collisions as of that date, eight of which involved being rear-ended at a stop sign or traffic light, two in which the vehicle was side-swiped by another driver, one of which involved another driver rolling through a stop sign, and one where a Google employee was manually driving the car. In July 2015, three Google employees suffered minor injuries when the self-driving car they were riding in was rear-ended by a car whose driver failed to brake at a traffic light. This was the first time that a self-driving car collision resulted in injuries. On 14 February 2016 a Google self-driving car was in a minor collision with a public bus on a city street.'

 

[renault12ts]

The Google car thought the bus would slow down or stop...isn't that a minor (or major) in the driving test, causing another vehicle to slow down whilst you execute a manoeuvre?

 

[Rory]

The Google car thought the bus would slow down or stop...isn't that a minor (or major) in the driving test, causing another vehicle to slow down whilst you execute a manoeuvre?

Is the US driving test the same as ours?


I find that in the US people don't voluntarily let you in - there's no flashing headlight concept there, indeed that function doesn't even exist on most cars - but they also don't respond agressively if you force your way in.

I can't quite make out what happened in this accident but it's said the Google car speed was 2MPH and the bus 15MPH - so it could be that the Google car simply didn't "go for it" as the bus driver expected.

 

[grober]

Perhaps it illustrates that driving is continuous learning and adapting process rather than a fixed set of rules. To quote Google :- our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles. Now most motorists who have had a bus pull out in front of them when they have right of way could tell you that from experience- and - technically its against the rules - BUT - in reality????
The factor in this equation is time. Anyone who has used Google maps or street view rapidly becomes aware they only reflect the moment in time the survey was done- and this may be several months or years out of date meaning things have changed.
Perhaps Google cars should come with a warning- caution this car was programmed with criteria based on highway legislation and practice formulated in the 1950s and may be out of date.

 

[drwizz]

This has to be my new favourite quote of the day

"From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles"

 

[whitenemesis]

Not 100% clear on how the collision occurred

"Approximately three seconds later, as the Google AV was re-entering the centre of the lane it made contact with the side of the bus."

Also, the AV was negotiating "sandbags on the road"

"The car's movements were made more complex, the report said, by the presence of sandbags on the road."

 

[grober]

They missed out the error code reported - sand bags---- the application has crashed - syntax error -rebooting- do you wish to send an error message to Google

 

[Rory]

Not 100% clear on how the collision occurred

"Approximately three seconds later, as the Google AV was re-entering the centre of the lane it made contact with the side of the bus."

There's detailed expanation in the update here: Google self-driving car crashes into a bus (update: statement)

 

[Mr Kripling]

The factor in this equation is time. Anyone who has used Google maps or street view rapidly becomes aware they only reflect the moment in time the survey was done- and this may be several months or years out of date meaning things have changed.

I'd argue that Google Maps is very rarely out of date for long. Streetview tends to less current, but that's because they can't have the camera cars driving every road in the UK on a regular basis.

In the case of self-driving cars, however, that latter point will become moot. Depending on what data Google are acquiring and processing from their cars, the more they drive about the better the algorithms should become which can then be pushed out to the entire fleet (as Tesla already do with their car's updates).

As for insurance, the cars acquire and record so much data about their surroundings that it should be incredibly straightforward to establish liability in the case of an accident. My guess is that whatever regulatory framework is eventually put together to govern self-driving cars will mandate that the manufacturers provide access to the data from their vehicles to the insurers who can do the actuarial calculations accordingly.

 

[renault12ts]

Not 100% clear on how the collision occurred

"Approximately three seconds later, as the Google AV was re-entering the centre of the lane it made contact with the side of the bus."

Also, the AV was negotiating "sandbags on the road"

"The car's movements were made more complex, the report said, by the presence of sandbags on the road."

That's the point though. As humans we can factor in the unexpected like sand bags...can a computer? As humans we can see a car approaching a junction, we know it should stop...but can see the driver is in the middle of a heart attack and probably wont stop...can the computer see this and make a decision...no.

I still believe self driving cars are...nonsense.

 

[Mr Kripling]

That's the point though. As humans we can factor in the unexpected like sand bags...can a computer?

It can be designed to anticipate them and react accordingly when it spots them, just like a human...

As humans we can see a car approaching a junction, we know it should stop...but can see the driver is in the middle of a heart attack and probably wont stop...can the computer see this and make a decision...no.

You can diagnose drivers having a heart attack? I'm impressed.

 

[whitenemesis]

That's the point though. As humans we can factor in the unexpected like sand bags...can a computer? As humans we can see a car approaching a junction, we know it should stop...but can see the driver is in the middle of a heart attack and probably wont stop...can the computer see this and make a decision...no.

I still believe self driving cars are...nonsense.

Having read the more in-depth report, I think the mistake made by the AV is one made by dozens of human drivers everyday. Just more slowly and less 'aggressively'(?)

AV are the future, maybe a little time off in the future but then look how far the humble ICE vehicle has come in a relatively short time..

 

[Stratman]

"Google car crashed after it swerved to avoid some tax"