Char Jackson wrote on 3/20/2018 10:07 AM:
On Tue, 20 Mar 2018 19:53:13 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote:

Self-driving Uber kills Arizona woman in first fatal crash involving
pedestrian

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/19/uber-self-driving-car-kills-woman-arizona-tempe

[multiple groups removed]

AFAIK, the facts are still being gathered, but I'd be curious to know
how many pedestrians were killed by human drivers over the same period.
If it's more than 1, which I'm assuming is the case, then I'm not
alarmed by this incident other than having sympathy for the deceased and
her family. Initial reports said she was crossing the street, but not in
or near a crosswalk, so I wonder if it would have made a positive
difference if a human had been driving. I hope testing doesn't get
curtailed by this incident.

I believe the number last year was 6000. The real question is how do
auto driven car accident statistics compare with human drivers.

The Uber accident was not necessarily the car/drivers fault. A woman was
walking a bicycle and started to cross the street, not in the crosswalk,
and was hit just as she went into the street. The car was traveling
around 40-45mph. In other words, it was HIGHLY likely she didn't look
before crossing. The municipal police are still investigating and
certainly have not assigned any blame yet. In fact they have speculated
that this might be one of those where no primary blame is asserted.

As someone else said: You should be wary and afraid of those automated
vehicles. But you should be god-awful more afraid of all those idiots
out there jacking off with their smart phones while driving.

My personnel bet is that 5 years from now we will see self drive cars
doing spectacularly better than human drive cars - better safety, better
millage, faster trips - and still a bunch of idiots (the same ones who
opposed autopilots and computer assisted landings for planes) bitching
about the supremacy of human drivers, vinyl records, doctors reading
x-rays, etc, etc, etc.
--
Jeff Barnett