jimmyz
03-19-2018, 01:20 PM
I want to recount an incident that I witnessed. We have a couple Big Tech companies testing their self-driving automobiles in my area of Arizona. Two weeks ago I was stopped at a red light, heading north to south. Cross traffic had a green and was moving west to east. On the opposite corner were two pedestrians waiting on the curb at the crosswalk, facing me. Their intent was to wait for the green and cross heading north toward me in the crosswalk and I would pass them on the green as well. Next to the pedestrians was the driver-less car coming to a stop on its red light with the computer's brain wanting to execute its right turn on red after coming to a stop.
Three things happened and came together all at once.
The pedestrians attempted to cross on their green light. A guy left hanging in his left turn lane is turning left on his soon to be red light. And a self-driving car is wanting to turn right on its red (you can do that in Arizona) in front of where the pedestrians stood.
Everyone was in motion at the same time. Pedestrians step off curb. Driver-less car starts its right turn in front of them. The pedestrians have to dive backward to prevent being struck by the driver-less car. It is literally starting and stopping in fits. Brake, power, brake, power. The people make it safe back onto the curb. The driver-less car continues at power in its turn almost striking the car turning left in front of it.
In the end, the driver-less car sped away from three very frightened people that it almost hit.
Now a local woman is struck and killed by one of these damnable contraptions - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html
Three things happened and came together all at once.
The pedestrians attempted to cross on their green light. A guy left hanging in his left turn lane is turning left on his soon to be red light. And a self-driving car is wanting to turn right on its red (you can do that in Arizona) in front of where the pedestrians stood.
Everyone was in motion at the same time. Pedestrians step off curb. Driver-less car starts its right turn in front of them. The pedestrians have to dive backward to prevent being struck by the driver-less car. It is literally starting and stopping in fits. Brake, power, brake, power. The people make it safe back onto the curb. The driver-less car continues at power in its turn almost striking the car turning left in front of it.
In the end, the driver-less car sped away from three very frightened people that it almost hit.
Now a local woman is struck and killed by one of these damnable contraptions - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/uber-driverless-fatality.html