> In the six seconds before impact, the self-driving system classified the pedestrian as an unknown object, then as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle, a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board explained. While the system identified that an emergency braking maneuver was needed to mitigate a collision, the system was set up to not activate emergency braking when under computer control.
The prosecutor made the wrong call here. This part is absolutely criminal negligence. Putting a “self driving” car out there that doesn’t have emergency braking enabled (apparently because it creates too many false positives) is an unjustifiable risk. Working emergency braking should be the first thing perfected, before the computer gets to control the car.
The prosecutor made the wrong call here. This part is absolutely criminal negligence. Putting a “self driving” car out there that doesn’t have emergency braking enabled (apparently because it creates too many false positives) is an unjustifiable risk. Working emergency braking should be the first thing perfected, before the computer gets to control the car.