Ma and Pa Kettle get an Edge

[upnut]

This thread reminded me of this story played on an AM all night truckers station I used to tune in on long trips, what a hoot!

Wendy Bagwell, Ol' Ralph Bennett's Volkswagen - YouTube

Scott B.

[Ianab]

Once the "self driving" cars hit the road in bulk I will never leave the woods agai

I think Elon and Co are finding out that fully self driving is a bit harder then they initially thought. You can program for the expected scenarios which is fine, but what about the unexpected?

What has put one self driving car off the road recently was an accident, that wasn't even the self driving cars fault, but the SD car made the accident even worse. A pedestrian was crossing the road (at a controlled crossing) and a car coming the other way (human driver) didn't stop, and hit them. They were bounced across the road and hit the self driving car coming the other way. Now that's bad enough. But the self driving car detected it had been in an accident, but because the victim was laying UNDER it, couldn't see them. So it drove 20 yards down the road and pulled over to wait for help, which is what it was programmed to do in the event of a minor collision. Victim is meanwhile under the self driving car screaming for help and being dragged along the road. So they were injured even more.

In hindsight you can see why the car was programmed to act that way, as that's what you do after a minor accident, you move off the road so you don't cause more problems. But if you saw a pedestrian bounce off your hood.... Well you might actually get out and look for them Before moving the vehicle.