odysseus2000 wrote:I really do hope this happens quickly as it would stem the appalling death and injury rates on roads around the world.
Expectations do need to be managed though. Accidents certainly won't be eliminated.
Sure, a self driving car should be less prone to lapses in concentration or falling asleep.
So in some ways, it's true that there is an expectation of safety
improvement. But that expectation needs to be managed in that improvement doesn't mean perfection.
Any net improvement over humans would still be beneficial.
The obvious example... of course we all slow down when going along a narrow road with cars parked either side, or passing a bus. But let's be honest, none of us slow right down such we could
guarantee that if an unseen child suddenly darted out from between them straight into our path at the worst possible moment, we would be able to completely avoid any contact at all.
And AD cars will have in some situations to strike similar balances.
That's not to say that technology isn't already being developed to see around corners... (without 5g networks or any other connectivity)
e.g.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... nd-corners https://www.newsweek.com/artificial-int ... -ai-680698 Or the other obvious example... pavements at the sides of the road where pedestrians normally and fully visibly walk in close proximity to traffic.. if a pedestrian, without looking at all, suddenly decided to dart into the road, sideways without first turning and standing facing the road, it's unlikely most drivers would be able to avoid a collision.
A pedestrian determined to get hit by a human driven car wouldn't have any problem bringing the situation about.
That said, I believe that waymo is modelling the normal expected behaviour of different categories of other road users, etc... like pedestrians, cyclists, etc, and would probably be able to quickly recognise when one of these entities isn't behaving as normal per their category, and give them a wider berth. (One of their presentations a few years ago showed a video where the AD had identified a cyclist and held back in expectation that the behaviour of the cyclist would be to move out to go around a parked car)
When driving we're balancing our judgements based on a
reasonable expectation of the behaviour of those around us, rather than always accommodating the worst case possibility.
In reality AD cars will have to make similar such balances... but not any more so than already done by human drivers.