According to https://seriousaccidents.com/legal-advice/top-causes-of-car-accidents/ the #1 reason for an accident is distracted driving.
In this case that would seem to be the cause. It is certainly clear that the technology involved might have increased the chance that the driver felt they didn’t need to constantly watch the road but never the less the actual cause was probably not watching where they were going and reacting appropriately. I would like Tesla and others to continue to work on the safety aspects of the vehicle systems to help prevent more of these sort of incidents and it’s clear in other videos that the collision avoidance system do in fact work, just not 100% of the time. Examples where it worked: http://bgr.com/2016/04/10/watch-teslas-autopilot-feature-prevent-an-accident-with-a-merging-truck/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X-5fKzmy38 So I don’t know, maybe we aren’t ready for fully autonomous but the sort of things that autopilot does are quite useful. Maybe have the car sense if you are not looking forward and/or take your hands off the wheel and beep - sort of like the snooze waring some long haul truckers use, but let’s not dismiss the technology out of hand. Lawrence > On Jul 27, 2016, at 12:05, Collin Kidder via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > > I agree, people can be dangerous. If we could figure out the software > I think self driving cars could be really safe. And, they'd be faster > too because the road could be run with very little gap between cars so > long as all of the cars are communicating and the cars are self > driving. But, being a software developer, the failures terrify me. I'm > too familiar with the way software is written and how buggy it tends > to be to be all that comfortable in a 70MPH 3500lb missile. However, > I'm already doing that in a drive by wire car. So, I guess it's just a > matter of perception. But, manufacturers are going to have a lot of > those perception issues to deal with. I think insurance will be kind > of tough at first too. If a crash happens who do you blame? What if > both cars were self driving? Will the automakers have to fight each > other in court? What if the self driving car mistook your semi for the > open sky (as just happened in the Tesla fatality)? I'm kind of leery > of the millions of ways a computer could mistake the video coming in. > Humans have a very finely tuned visual system and we still get it > wrong sometimes. But, I don't think nearly anyone would have been > fooled by the semi truck looks like the sky issue. I could see that it > was a semi truck if I were driving. Apparently cars can't always. > Though, I'm sure it'll improve. It's sort of a chicken and egg > situation. I won't trust a self driving car with my own life until it > is bulletproof but getting it there requires a lot of on the road > testing. > >> >> I think that once the self driving cars can demonstrate they can avoid more >> accidents on the road than the typical human, adoption will be rapid. >> Mostly what they would be avoiding would be humans that weren't paying >> attention. Once more humans are removed, the overall safety will increase >> again. >> >> We would like to think that all drivers are very careful and fully engaged >> in driving, but what I see on a daily basis isn't that. I think that cars >> that are more predictable and can dodge humans are a good thing. >> >> Mike >> >> > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
