Video Shows Google Self-Driving Car Hit Bus

[bananas]

Source: Associated Press

Newly released video shows the first time a Google self-driving car being tested in public caused an accident. The Lexus SUV, outfitted by Google with special sensors, struck a public bus on Valentine’s Day in Mountain View, California.

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[kracer20]

1. I'm not comfortable with these on the road.

Any idea if these cars have an actual human inside with controls, like you would see for student drivers?

What do you do if you are in an accident with one? Do they have a built in teleconference system so you can get driver details?

[nichomachus]

2. I'm not comfortable with most human drivers I see on the road. nt

[deathrind]

27. 👆 this

[REP]

3. I hate them because they drive SO DAMN SLOW

Yes they have a human in each one. Why would they be on the road empty!?? There'd be no point in that.

[jberryhill]

28. "There'd be no point in that."

I tend to think that ultimately would be precisely the point.

Think of what a lot of car trips are for. To go pick someone up, or to go pick something up.

Why should your spouse drive down to the train station to pick you up, when the car can go down there on its own.

Or, if I can purchase an item at a local store from the website for pick up, why should I bother to go get it when I can send the car. I give the store my plate number, pay online, and they have a drive-through pick up. When the car gets there, it opens the trunk, they put in the goods, and the car brings it home.

Restaurants without delivery? bah.

Taking it further, though, individual car ownership becomes somewhat pointless. You join a car share. When you want a car, you summon one like Uber. It comes to your location, picks you up (phone rfid verification), and takes you where you want to go. While there are a lot of incidental emotional attachments to cars, the basic reason for having one is to haul your ass from place to place - and it's mostly what you do with your car. Okay, so what if it is more cost effective to subscribe to transportation as a service, instead of owning, maintaining, insuring, etc. a car?

[Pakhet]

33. I love this idea.

That way my non-driving son (we're working on it) can take that job that is impossible to take due to scheduling conflicts, like my work hours.

[NutmegYankee]

4. There is a human inside with the ability to take control should the system fail.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Well, that worked out well

[NutmegYankee]

10. It happened too quickly.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. The car says the tree jumped in front of it.

[kracer20]

6. Happens all the time.

http://cheezburger.com/8757450240/driving-fail-tree-a-woman-crashed-into-a-tree-and-proceeded-to-just-drive-around-with-it

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. That was a hitchhiking Ent.

[Thegonagle]

7. They all have test drivers.

All of Google's test cars have a test driver who is supposed to take over if the car's software does something wrong. They're only being tested in California, and California is (so far) requiring that a driver be at the controls at all times. The driver didn't take control back before the self-driving car pulled out in front of a bus. It probably happened too suddenly for the driver to react in time.

[csziggy]

13. Even a driver in full control cannot react fast enough sometimes

I can't imagine that a "provisional driver" who only expects to react when needed would react as fast as a person in full control. Either the computers will have to be in full control or a human will. I cannot see how a human who expects to be a passenger most of the time would be able to take over.

Way back when I was in driver's ed the teacher had his own controls in case a student driver screwed up. I can remember a couple of times we were nearly in accidents when the teacher - who was alert and constantly ready to take over - was not able to react quickly. Fortunately the students were able to correct their mistakes quickly but it was close!

[whatthehey]

9. one minor shared fault collision in well over a million real world miles?

They are safer by orders of magnitude than human drivers.

[goldent]

14. Maybe some day, not now.

[PersonNumber503602]

18. Why not? I'm curious what you base this statement on.

Also, how do they improve without actually doing it?

[goldent]

20. I'm just saying that today SDCs are only usable under controlled

conditions with a test driver on board who needs to be ready to take over at any time (and does occasionally according to Google). They are not ready for the real world as is clear from this last story. I said that "someday" they may be safer drivers than humans but we aren't there yet.

[whatthehey]

21. If they are not ready for the real world after 7 digits of miles and 1 2mph ding

How are human drivers allowed with their far higher aaccident rate and tens of thousands of deaths?

Why wait for perfection to replace carnage? All autonomous cars rationally need to be to be a fantastic advance, let alone "ready for the real world" is better than the godawful record of human drivers. They are already long past that. Trying to resist this advance is like refusing to countenance penicillin because some people react to it.

[goldent]

30. I don't think you read my post - I am not resisting it

Google are making progress - it just is ready today. If it was ready today, Google would be making public demonstrations and talking to the regulators about how it could be certified. They just aren't there yet - it is going to take a long time.

[PersonNumber503602]

25. Because of one minor accident?

This is the first shared fault accident involving a google car after over a million miles driven on public streets. In your opinion, what's the criteria for it to be considered usable outside of controlled environments? No accidents out of how many miles? Should we apply similar criteria to human drivers?

[goldent]

31. The fact that Google's SDC is not ready for the public has nothing

to do with this accident. Google it testing under limited conditions in a small geographic area that has been well mapped out. The car needs to be turned over to regulators for testing and ultimately certification. Google will be eager to do that when they are ready - they have not brought it up yet. Google is doing great things, but they have a ways to go.

[jberryhill]

29. The human accident rate for the same mileage is much higher

[goldent]

32. Google's accident rate is higher than average

All but one of the accidents have legally been the other drivers fault, and they are often rear-end collisions. Google recognizes this and understand the Google car does not drive like most people (e.g. makes unexpected stops). They are working on it.

[gcomeau]

26. Those numbers ARE now, not "someday".

[Thegonagle]

19. It's hard to be in a serious accident with any injuries at a top speed of 25 MPH.

They may possibly be statistically safer on Google's test routes in sunny California, depending on how the numbers are crunched, but they're definitely nowhere near practical yet. They don't drive on freeways or highways yet, and they can't even drive in rain, let alone worse weather.

Give it a few decades, and the state of the art might be good enough to do 99% of the driving, but self driving cars won't be taking over the streets any time soon.

[Zorro]

22. Tesla's Autopilot software is pretty effective

and it's deployed and operating now. Not perfect, but getting closer.

[Turbineguy]

17. They'll have to come out with a special model for Florida

One that is busy texting, runs red lights and stop signs, drives aggressively and has road rage.

[chapdrum]

11. Another breakthrough for Google

"The little (search) engine that could" become an Overlord.

And what a tremendous contribution to society.

[MADem]

15. This video has been removed by the user.

This really isn't "LBN" either.

[bananas]

23. AP Releases Video of Google's Valentine's Day Car Crash

The video was on AP's youtube channel, don't know why they removed it but it's on all other major news sites now.

Here's a couple of articles specifying it was released by AP:

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/tech/VIDEO-Google-Self-Driving-SUV-hits-a-bus-while-being-tested-on-Valentines-Day-in-Mountain-View-California---371541711.html

VIDEO: Google Self-Driving SUV Sideswipes Bus in Calif.
By Riya Bhattacharjee and Associated Press
Published at 9:43 AM PST on Mar 9, 2016

Newly released video shows the first time a Google self-driving car being tested in public caused an accident.

The Lexus SUV, outfitted by Google with special sensors, struck a public bus on Valentine’s Day near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The short video — released to the Associated Press by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation (VTA) through a Public Records Act request — doesn't actually show the collision, but you can make out an outline of the SUV as it sideswipes the right side of the bus, surprising the driver, who then stops the bus to check out the damage.

<snip>

http://www.rdmag.com/articles/2016/03/ap-releases-video-googles-valentines-day-car-crash

AP Releases Video of Google's Valentine's Day Car Crash
Wed, 03/09/2016 - 2:29pm
by Greg Watry, Digital Reporter

It was not a day of love between Google’s self-driving car and a public transit bus on Valentine’s Day 2016. On that day, Google’s self-driving Lexus SUV was responsible for causing a crash in California. Now, surveillance video obtained by the Associated Press (AP) showing the crash has been released.

“It was the first time in several years of testing on public roads that a Google self-driving car prototype caused a crash,” according to the AP. “Google has blamed other drivers for past collisions during testing, but, in a first, accepted at least partial responsibility for this crash.”

According to the accident report, the Google vehicle was traveling in the far right-hand lane on El Camino Real in Mountain View, Calif. The car signaled to make a turn onto Castro Street while waiting at a red light.

<snip>

[greymouse]

16. here's a video

http://www.businessinsider.com/video-google-self-driving-car-slowly-hits-city-bus-2016-3

Not sure what happened, maybe the car pulled out into traffic and hit the bus. How could that happen? I would think changing lanes would be an event programmed very thoroughly.

[bananas]

24. "Today, the Associated Press managed to get the Mountain View transit authority's footage"

Thanks, from your link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/video-google-self-driving-car-slowly-hits-city-bus-2016-3

<snip>

Today, the Associated Press managed to get the Mountain View transit authority's footage from the bus' onboard camera. For reasons still unknown, that video was taken down Wednesday afternoon, but a copy of the footage was posted on the service Liveleak.

<snip>