Autonomous Vehicles

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Autonomous Vehicles is a community dedicated to the news, discussion and exploration of autonomous vehicles and how we as a society, will embrace this futurology today!

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sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works

Designers must make vehicles safe for everyone — not just drivers and passengers (www.iihs.org)

submitted 5 months ago by sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to c/avs

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[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Here's the section most relevant to AVs:

Vehicle design trends are not all bad news. Since 2019, IIHS has been rating pedestrian crash avoidance systems, which warn the driver when a pedestrian is detected and apply the brakes if the driver doesn’t respond in time. We have found that this technology reduces pedestrian crash rates by 27%; even when it doesn’t prevent a crash, it can reduce the severity of the pedestrian’s injuries by lowering the impact speed. More and more vehicles are being sold with this technology standard, and NHTSA recently mandated it on new vehicles starting in 2029.

The efficacy of even simple collision avoidance systems just goes to show that humans are kind of terrible at driving. I don't think it will take that much for autonomous vehicles to be safer than humans on average. Computers don't get tired, drunk, or distracted.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I don't think it will take that much for autonomous vehicles to be safer than humans on average. Computers don't get tired, drunk, or distracted.

That's what I always say when people rail against AVs because it does something imperfect. It doesn't need to be 100% right every time in every situation, it just needs to be better than people, which is a really low bar IMO

[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Keep in mind this is two completely different systems (human and algorithm) working together to prevent crashes. If the algorithm was also responsible for driving and had no human oversight, I can see it easily doing as badly as the human. Two different safety systems working together is always going to be better than one.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

two completely different systems (human and algorithm) working together to prevent crashes

Good point. Most current driver assistance systems perform terribly without human supervision.

Two different safety systems working together is always going to be better than one.

That might be true now, but I'm not sure it will always be true. Current autonomous vehicles aren't quite as good as human drivers yet, so "defer to the human" is the safer choice. Once AV capabilities surpass humans, "defer to the human" might not be the safest choice any more.

[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago

I mean it's always going to be better if they're not working against each other. For example, imagine you're learning to walk the tightrope. A harness and a net is going to be safer than either one. The harness could fail, and the net could have a structural weakness, but there's very little chance of both happening. Or for a more car relevant example, crumple zone plus airbags is gonna help more with head on collisions than just one. When the two systems are in conflict, though, you're right.