<story><title>Alphabet&apos;s Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-25/alphabet-s-self-driving-cars-to-get-their-first-real-riders</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jonmc12</author><text>Am I the only one feeling the press + big tech narrative of &amp;quot;driverless vehicles = safety&amp;quot; is way ahead of itself?  OK, &amp;quot;driver error is blamed for 94% of crashes&amp;quot;, but what is the validation strategy to show where driverless cars can quantifiably improve?  In 2016,  Philip Koopman of CMU discusses that there are non-trivial engineering challenges of achieving safety in NHTSA Level 4 vehicle automation:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;users.ece.cmu.edu&amp;#x2F;~koopman&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;koopman16_sae_autonomous_validation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;users.ece.cmu.edu&amp;#x2F;~koopman&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;koopman16_sae_autono...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we are building the safest transportation system, what role do driverless vehicles play?  Wouldn&amp;#x27;t that be the narrative that actually saves the most lives?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smlacy</author><text>Your argument is about the same as &amp;quot;Humans can calculate arithmetic perfectly accurately, why do we need computers to do it for us?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;There are a host of obvious reasons why even a &amp;quot;simple&amp;quot; L4 car will beat a human hands down:&lt;p&gt;* Reaction time.&lt;p&gt;* 360 awareness &amp;#x2F; visibility.&lt;p&gt;* Lack of exaggerated &amp;quot;Human Reflex&amp;quot; to surprising events (i.e. swerving violently to avoid a dog, and hitting other vehicles)&lt;p&gt;* Keeping perfect space around the vehicle for safe stopping at all times.  (don&amp;#x27;t tailgate, don&amp;#x27;t get rear-ended)&lt;p&gt;* Assuming a LIDAR-based system, virtually no difference in day vs. night vision. No &amp;quot;sun in your eyes&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;road glare&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;* No fatigue related accidents.&lt;p&gt;* No DUI and related prescription drug accidents.&lt;p&gt;* No distraction-based accidents. (kids, cellphone, food)&lt;p&gt;* No &amp;quot;road rage&amp;quot; based accidents.&lt;p&gt;I could go on, but this should drive the point home pretty clearly, IMHO.</text></comment>
<story><title>Alphabet&apos;s Self-Driving Cars to Get Their First Real Riders</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-25/alphabet-s-self-driving-cars-to-get-their-first-real-riders</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jonmc12</author><text>Am I the only one feeling the press + big tech narrative of &amp;quot;driverless vehicles = safety&amp;quot; is way ahead of itself?  OK, &amp;quot;driver error is blamed for 94% of crashes&amp;quot;, but what is the validation strategy to show where driverless cars can quantifiably improve?  In 2016,  Philip Koopman of CMU discusses that there are non-trivial engineering challenges of achieving safety in NHTSA Level 4 vehicle automation:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;users.ece.cmu.edu&amp;#x2F;~koopman&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;koopman16_sae_autonomous_validation.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;users.ece.cmu.edu&amp;#x2F;~koopman&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;koopman16_sae_autono...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we are building the safest transportation system, what role do driverless vehicles play?  Wouldn&amp;#x27;t that be the narrative that actually saves the most lives?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vkou</author><text>It is. We&amp;#x27;ve seen some spectacular self-driving vehicle failures in the past while. Teslas running into half-opened garage doors, vehicles pulled over on the shoulder, the side of a semi, navigating roundablouts by driving into the ditch, driving on the wrong side of the road, yelling at the driver for staying in their lane...</text></comment>