Uber’s self-driving cars were seen as problematic months
before striking and killing a woman in Tempe, Arizona. These issues are related to technical difficulties when driving through construction zones or
next to tall vehicles. This brings up a compelling case because these cars are
most likely going to be the means of transportation in just a few short years.
Uber originally was testing with two employees in every car.
One of these employees had the obligation to take over driving if the
autonomous system failed, while the other analyzed what the computer was
testing. In other words, the second employee had the duty to record and monitor
the system performance. Therefore, the first employee was the only one responsible
for safety related issues.
After Uber had tested with two individuals in the car, they
moved to one which brought up great concern for many throughout the
organization. Being alone in a self-driving car for hours would be boring and
be extremely difficult to stay alert for long durations of time. I believe this
is one of the main issues with Uber’s training program. Another issue regarding
this topic was that the trainees would oftentimes record data while the car was
moving. This is more dangerous than texting and driving!
Two cases that go along with the Uber’s poor training dealt
with an employee falling asleep during the training and being spotted by a coworker
and another where the employee was air drumming while going through a busy
intersection. For all the reasons stated above, I do not think our society
should transition directly to autonomous cars, but instead slowly transition to them by implementing more and more "self-driving" features to cars. Technology advancements as significant as this should not be rushed like some of these companies are doing. It should be a slow process that can we can adjust to progressively.
Source :
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/technology/uber-self-driving-cars-arizona.html
Chris,
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the footage from the actual incident in Phoenix, it seems that anyone could have ran the victim over. It was dark and they were sprinting across a highway. Maybe if the driver had his eyes on the road he could've hit the breaks faster but I doubt it. Let me know what you think.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThe incident in Tempe was tragic but I agree with Ty's comment above. I believe that society is ready to take on self driving cars. So many companies are competing to master this innovative idea that I think they are not taking enough time looking at safety precautions. The incident in Tempe is a tricky situation due to the fact that the person hit was J walking in the dark as Ty mentioned. These cars have been known to be safe until this incident. Therefore, I think we need to give it a little bit of time for things to settle and figure out what happened and then proceed with their work on self driving cars.