The date of the first person trampled by a horse is not recorded.
One of the very first trains in Britain killed William Huskisson, in 1830.
Bridget Driscoll was the first person killed by an automobile, in 1896.
Lt. Thomas Selfridge was the first person killed in an airplane crash, in 1908.
Should we have waited for perfect safety in all of the above?
I see that as a reminder that self-driving vehicles are still significantly safer than human driven vehicles. Even if autonomous vehicles killed a person every week (which they don’t) they’d still be safer than humans.
This is contrary to other commentators who state that private vehicles will need to be removed from the roads to make self driving car companies work and be profitable.
You’ll end up with more cars on the road- and more congestion.
It’ll never be cheaper than s bus, trolley or subway. And these companies have no interest in seeing it become a public option. Nor would municipalities have the cash to fund it.
And you used those roads for decades, as was the intention, and when the autos come to save us from shitty human drivers, you’ll still use them, just not behind the wheel where it’s unsafe.
Insurance companies will most likely price enough people out of the human driven car market that the laws will be mostly unnecessary.
I’m guessing the computer will be held blameless. It’s Arizona and it is already being reported that the pedestrian was outside the crosswalk like an idiot. Here’s the applicable regs in AZ. “Pedestrians may not suddenly leave the curb and enter a crosswalk into the path of a moving vehicle that is so close the vehicle is unable to yield. Pedestrians must yield the right-of-way to vehicles when crossing outside of a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Where traffic control devices are in operation, pedestrians may only cross between two adjacent intersections in a marked crosswalk.”
I’ve been asking this question here and elsewhere for two years at least; when all cars are self-driving, could any pedestrian, bicyclist, dog or child step in front of a self-driving vehicle and, given enough braking distance, have the car stop?
nobodez https://bbs.boingboing.net/u/nobodez
March 19And you used those roads for decades, as was the intention, and when the
autos come to save us from shitty human drivers, you’ll still use them,
just not behind the wheel where it’s unsafe.Visit Topic
https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/first-pedestrian-killed-by-autonomous-vehicle/117582/106
or reply to this email to respond.In Reply To
KathyPadilla https://bbs.boingboing.net/u/kathypadilla
March 19
If they really want to limit liability - they need to get rid of the
passengers. I paid for these roads for decades - if they want me off - they
better pay back my investment with interest. edit The value of all the
roadway land in the US - who knows? tens of Trillions? And over $100billion
each…Visit Topic
https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/first-pedestrian-killed-by-autonomous-vehicle/117582/106
or reply to this email to respond.To unsubscribe from these emails, click here
https://bbs.boingboing.net/email/unsubscribe/714f650d4114ca4ce6d0c54fcb5491089dbb698beae3effa252c3b6517a78b72
.
They said manually driven cars will be removed eventually to make way for self driving car only roads. That is orthogonal to if they are private or commercial. You will be able to own a self driving car.
They can play with their self driving cars on racetracks - like horses.
Does the London underground have staff in all (any of) the train sections? I’ve never used a subway system that were meaningfully staffed - the driver is sealed away, unaware of what’s going on. Buses aren’t much better, frankly, even with a driver there. Trains can have “conductors,” but they’re separate from the driver. I don’t see a problem. Autonomous taxis will definitely have to have means of being cleaned between uses, but no change there either.
To be clear, I’m not talking about single-occupancy autonomous vehicles as public transport, though. Mass transit will just become more important over time as cities increase in density, and buses, trains and public shuttles can be made autonomous for lower operating costs. Autonomous vehicles will allow new variations of those, though, too. (lower-capacity shuttles become economically viable; variable-route buses become possible, etc.) Worst case scenario is a focus on private-club car sharing, with some form of clubs/coops/associations, but that still takes cars off the road, as you end up with one car being shared between multiple people who don’t need it at the same time. The autonomous version of a taxi is always going to cost more than mass transit, as you say, so mass transit has a reason to stay. If Uber hasn’t already driven out (no pun intended) public transport in an area (which, granted, it already has in some more rural areas), I don’t see autonomous vehicles doing much worse.
Here in Toronto, every subway train has a staff of two: a driver, and a conductor whose job it is stick his head out the window at each stop and make sure people are safely inside/away from the yellow line before the train starts moving again. There was talk at one point about replacing the driver with an autopilot, but it didn’t happen. Nobody in their right mind has suggested replacing the conductor.
Here in Vancouver, the trains have been driverless since day one, over 30 years ago. Not unstaffed, of course. Security, cleaners, etc.
As a native of the East Coast, I am always stunned watching people in Western states just walk in front of moving cars - totally confident that they will stop. I made the mistake of driving near the Embarcadero in San Francisco once, and it took a very long time to move a few blocks because pedestrians were in the street (ignoring the traffic/color of the traffic signals).
People can, obviously, do whatever they want on their private property. The question is what should be permitted on public roads, where innocent passersby pay the price for ill-advised shenanigans and deadly negligence. At some point, we have to face the truth: humans can’t drive for shit.
I see it often myself, and while it might seem brave it only takes one car to not stop to permanently end that habit. I’ll wait.
Right. And turning them into uncompensated privatized profit centers for Uber is right out.
Never too early. 
But I’ll note that self-driving cars - a.k.a. cars you can’t drive - aim to kill off what Red Barchetta celebrates.
Next autonomous vehicle design.
