Last night a woman was struck by an autonomous Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. She later died of her injuries in the hospital. The deadly collision—reported by ABC15 and later confirmed to Gizmodo by Uber and Tempe police—took place around 10PM at the intersection of Mill Avenue and Curry Road, both of which are multi-lane roads. Autonomous vehicle developers often test drive at night, during storms, and other challenging conditions to help their vehicles learn to navigate in a variety of environments. According to Tempe PD, the car—later clarified as a grey 2017 Volvo XC90—was in autonomous mode at the time of the incident, with a vehicle operator sitting behind the wheel. The self-driving vehicle had one operator and no passengers, Uber said. Police have identified the victim as 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. She was crossing the street at the time she was struck. “The Tempe community grieves for her and for the loss being felt by her family and … [Read more...] about Uber Self-Driving Car Struck and Killed Arizona Woman While in Autonomous Mode
Testing self driving cars
The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry
Autonomous vehicles were supposed to make driving safer, and they may yet—some of the more optimistic research indicates self-driving cars could save tens of thousands of lives a year in the U.S. alone. But so far, a recklessness has defined the culture of the largest companies pursuing the technology—Uber, Google, and arguably even Tesla—and has led directly to unnecessary crashes, injury, even death. Let’s be clear about this, because it seems to me that these companies have gotten a bit of a pass for undertaking a difficult, potentially ‘revolutionary’ technology, and because blame can appear nebulous in car crashes, or in these cases can be directed toward the humans who were supposed to be watching the road. These companies’ actions (or sometimes, lack of action) have led to loss of life and limb. In the process, they have darkened the outlook for the field in general, sapping public trust in self-driving cars and delaying the rollout of … [Read more...] about The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry
Do You Work as a Self-Driving Car Operator? Tell Us Your Story
This week’s New Yorker features a scathing article on Google’s self-driving car program, detailing the stories of nightmarish mismanagement and at least one crash involving self-driving cars that went mostly unreported. We want to shine more light on what happens behind closed doors in our race to get self-driving cars on the road, and the best people to share what’s really going on are the everyday engineers, programmers, mechanics and drivers involved in these programs. The companies testing these new technologies on public roads, like Tesla, Uber, Apple, GM’s Cruise, and Google and Waymo, go to extreme lengths to keep the work a secret—including massive lawsuits over allegedly stolen trade secrets that turn out to seemingly be mostly nothing. But sometimes the secrecy goes too far, or the smaller incidents go unreported, like the New Yorker’s story which claims a Google engineer took a self-driving car off-course, leading to another motorist … [Read more...] about Do You Work as a Self-Driving Car Operator? Tell Us Your Story
Self-driving Cars May Have Unexpected Effect: Fewer Organ Donations
A fleet of Uber self-driving cars hangs out at the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of the Uber self-driving fleet was involved in an accident on March 24, 2017, thought to be caused by human error. ANGELO MERENDINO/AFP/Getty Images A high-impact collision caused one of Uber's self-driving Volvo SUVs to fall over on its side on Friday, March 24, 2017, in Tempe, Arizona. The Uber vehicle had two operators riding in the front and was in self-driving mode. No passengers were present in the back seat. After the accident, Uber chose to suspend temporarily its self-driving vehicle tests in Arizona, San Francisco and Pittsburgh. It sounds as though this collision was the fault of a human driver operating a Ford Edge, according to police statements. Uber has since resumed testing, apparently confident that the autonomous systems were not at fault. The accident reinforces the claim that autonomous cars are better drivers than we are, at least under normal … [Read more...] about Self-driving Cars May Have Unexpected Effect: Fewer Organ Donations
College Student Turns His Honda Civic into a Self-Driving Car for $700
The interior of a Honda similar to this one was customized. Honda A 2016 Honda Civic will set you back at least $20,000. But for an extra $700 and some free software from the internet, you can now turn it into a self-driving vehicle. That's what a University of Nebraska college kid just did, anyway. The enterprising student, Brevan Jorgenson, worked for a time as a beta tester for Comma.ai, a self-driving car technology startup company. Comma planned to sell its self-driving software as a kit for just $999, but got a stern warning from the National Transportation Safety Administration about putting its customers at risk. So instead, it decided to make the software available downloadable for free. But only two types of cars are currently compatible with the software — the 2016 Acura ILX and the 2016 Honda Civic, which Jorgenson happens to own. The interior of Brevan's self-driving Civic. WOWT Jorgenson elected to build Comma's device (called the Neo) using the … [Read more...] about College Student Turns His Honda Civic into a Self-Driving Car for $700