Uber in fatal crash detected pedestrian but had emergency braking disabled

[Kablooie]

The initial report by the National Transportation Safety Board on the fatal self-driving Uber crash in March confirms that the car detected the pedestrian as early as 6 seconds before the crash, but did not slow or stop because its emergency braking systems were deliberately disabled.

Uber told the NTSB that “emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior,” in other words, to ensure a smooth ride. “The vehicle operator is relied on to intervene and take action. The system is not designed to alert the operator.” It’s not clear why the emergency braking capability even exists if it is disabled while the car is in operation. The Volvo model’s built-in safety systems — collision avoidance and emergency braking, among other things — are also disabled while in autonomous mode.

According to the NTSB report, the vehicle first registered Elaine Herzberg on lidar six seconds before the crash — at the speed it was traveling, that puts first contact at about 378 feet away. She was first identified as an unknown object, then a vehicle, then a bicycle, over the next few seconds (it isn’t stated when these classifications took place exactly).

During these six seconds, the driver could and should have been alerted of an anomalous object ahead on the left — whether it was a deer, a car or a bike, it was entering or could enter the road and should be attended to. But the system did not warn the driver and apparently had no way to.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/24/uber-in-fatal-crash-detected-pedestrian-but-had-emergency-braking-disabled/

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This seems insane. They had no way to stop the car or warn the driver in the event of an unexpected obstacle in front.
They should be banned from more autonomous driving development and only allowed to buy some other company's system once it's available in coming years.

[honest.abe]

1. Yes, agreed, it does seem insane.. or at least extremely poor judgement.

This seems to be more an issue with the configuration of the system than the system itself.

[appalachiablue]

2. Wrong. It doesn't seem insane....It IS insane. WTH is the system for then?

An article a month ago stated that Uber cut corners, there are supposed to be 2 human 'drivers/passenger' not 1, because it's known that 1 will tire, get distracted or mess up.

Now this screw up revelation..