Uber Wants To Resume Self- Driving Car Tests On Public Roads

[appalachiablue]

Source: AP

3 hrs. ago.

DETROIT — Nearly eight months after one of its autonomous test vehicles hit and killed an Arizona pedestrian, Uber wants to resume testing on public roads.

The company has filed an application with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to test in Pittsburgh, and it has issued a lengthy safety report pledging to put two human backup drivers in each vehicle and take a raft of other precautions to make the vehicles safe.

Company officials acknowledge they have a long way to go to regain public trust after the March 18 crash in Tempe, Arizona, that killed Elaine Herzberg, 49, as she crossed a darkened road outside the lines of a crosswalk.

Police said Uber's backup driver in the autonomous Volvo SUV was streaming the television show "The Voice" on her phone and looking downward before crash. The National Transportation Safety Board said the autonomous driving system on the Volvo spotted Herzberg about six seconds before hitting her, but did not stop because the system used to automatically apply brakes in potentially dangerous situations had been disabled. A Volvo emergency braking system also had been turned off. -More...

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/uber-wants-to-resume-self-driving-car-tests-on-public-roads/ar-BBPgo5x?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

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[msongs]

1. uber wont let dead people get in the way of its profits. nt

[Loki Liesmith]

7. Guarantee a higher percentage of their human drivers

Will get in serious accidents than their bot driven cars as time goes on.

[Bleacher Creature]

2. OK, but can they give me some notice so that I can avoid those roads?

[keithbvadu2]

3. Mandatory! A $20million policy payout for anyone killed in a UBER involved accident.

Mandatory! A $20million policy payout for anyone killed in a UBER involved accident.

Lesser amounts, but still mandatory, for lesser injuries.

[cstanleytech]

14. I would have no problem with that however it should be with the provision

that the Uber car has to be found at fault by the police and if it's the other person's than Uber does not have to pay it out.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I'm for the rights of people to drive on this one

Once you rely on technology there's going to be a screw-up somewhere, sometime

[Loki Liesmith]

8. Once you rely on humans

there’s going to be a screwup sometime, somewhere.

[Loki Liesmith]

11. Mockery is in the ears that hear it.

[cstanleytech]

15. Loki is right though statistically humans make a ton of mistakes.

A properly programmed artificial intelligence though is less likely to make as many mistakes however that aside a artificial intelligence able to deal with the randomness of human drivers as well as pedestrians is still decades away in my opinion.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. FUuber

[paleotn]

6. Uh.....no.

SkyNet hasn't yet proven that it can drive cars worth a damn. I'll take my chances with the carbon life forms behind the wheel.

[Loki Liesmith]

9. Sure it has.

[paleotn]

16. Simple stuff, even a teenager with a shiny new drivers license couldn't f up. Sure.

But throw them anything outside of programmed parameters...say like...life...and Siri is as dumb as a stump.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Luddite. I think autonomous vehicles will have their place someday. But until they can routinely handle the fast changing circumstances and conditions humans deal with seamlessly everyday, I'm not betting my life on them. Thus, autonomous vehicles need to stay on the test tracks until they actually develop something that has some resemblance to thinking. We're no where close to that yet. They're still just running throw lines of code and when they hit a bug or experience something outside their programming they crash. Literally.

[brush]

12. Uber drivers you know this means your job eventually, better join the protests.

[FSogol]

13. I'm developing a product that could be deadly. I can test it on public streets, right?

No one has a problem with that?

The general public can be my guinea pigs because technology and money!