FrodosNewPet
FrodosNewPet's JournalUber Halts Autonomous-Car Testing After Fatal Arizona Crash
Source: Bloomberg
Uber Technologies Inc. halted autonomous vehicle tests after one of its cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, in what is likely the first pedestrian fatality involving the technology.
The 49 year-old woman, Elaine Herzberg, was crossing the road outside of a crosswalk when the Uber vehicle operating in autonomous mode under the supervision of a human safety driver, struck her, according to the Tempe Police Department. She was transferred to a local hospital where she died from her injuries. "Uber is assisting and this is still an active investigation," Liliana Duran, a Tempe police spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.
Uber said on Monday that it was pausing tests of all its autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto and the greater Phoenix area. “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family," a company spokeswoman said in a statement. "We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident."
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"We’re within the phase of autonomous vehicles where we’re still learning how good they are. Whenever you release a new technology there’s a whole bunch of unanticipated situations," said Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University’s business school. "Despite the fact that humans are also prone to error, we have as a society many decades of understanding of those errors."
~ snip ~
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-19/uber-autonomous-car-involved-in-fatal-crash-in-arizona
Who is former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg?
CNNs Erin Burnett To Sam Nunberg: I Smell Alcohol On Your Breath
Source: Huffington Post
By Rebecca Shapiro | 03/05/2018 09:15 pm ET
President Donald Trump’s former campaign aide Sam Nunberg spent Monday afternoon sitting for a series of interviews on cable news shows, bombastically stating that he would not comply with a subpoena he received to appear before a federal grand jury regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Before wrapping his appearance on Erin Burnett’s show, the CNN host said she could smell alcohol on his breath and asked Nunberg if he had been drinking.
“We talked earlier about what people in the White House were saying about you ― talking about whether you were drinking or on drugs or whatever had happened today,” she said. “Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath.”
Nunberg said he had not had a drink and had only taken his medication ― antidepressants ― earlier Monday.
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Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erin-burnett-sam-nunberg-talking-to-you-i-smell-alcohol-on-your-breath_us_5a9dea31e4b0479c02563d4b?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg has not only went off the rails, he is driving that train through the funhouse while playing Yakkity Sax on a kazoo!
Former Trump aide: Mueller won't send me to prison
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg has not only went off the rails, he is driving that train through the funhouse while playing Yakkity Sax on a kazoo!
Conservative moron commits extortion on Twitter
No, not THAT one. A different, lesser known moron.
https://twitter.com/CaseyCagle/status/968199605803454465
https://thinkprogress.org/georgia-official-retaliate-delta-ending-discounts-nra-members-7ce2b34bb4dc/
The Waymo v. Uber trial has shaken my confidence in self-driving cars
The Waymo v. Uber trial has shaken my confidence in self-driving carsTrust is a two-way street
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/16996864/waymo-vs-uber-trial-settlement-self-driving-car-confidence
By Andrew J. Hawkins | Feb 13, 2018
Amid the avalanche of damning emails and embarrassing text messages that flowed out of the Waymo-Uber trial, what struck me the most was when ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Anthony Levandowski — Kalanick’s onetime business partner who he described in court as his “brother from another mother” — described the race to build self-driving cars as a “zero sum game.”
“We need to think through the strategy to take all the shortcuts we can,” Levandowski told Kalanick. “I just see this as a race and we need to win, second place is the first looser [sic].”
This callous attitude toward a potentially game-changing, life-saving, and paradigm-shifting technology like autonomous vehicles is extremely troubling. A pirate mentality has infected companies in the autonomous vehicle space. “Move fast and break things” may have worked as an ethos for Uber when it was trying to overcome entrenched interests like the taxi industry, but it’s exactly the opposite philosophy you want to hear from a company that wants you to ride in its driverless cars.
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The idea that one of the companies that has already deployed autonomous cars was actively seeking “shortcuts” and “cheat codes” should scare the shit out of everyone. These odious sentiments would never have come to light if not for the trial’s discovery process that brought so many of Uber’s underhanded tactics out into the open. Obviously, Uber’s new leadership is aware that there are trust issues and is actively seeking to claw its way back into the good graces of its users. But the company is still on a very aggressive timeline. “We will have autonomous cars on the road, I believe within the next 18 months,” new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at a recent event in Davos. “And not as a test case, as a real [use] case out there.”
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Autonomous vehicle safety not only impacts the voluntary passengers. It impacts the safety of everyone in the vicinity of the vehicle. The idea of shortcuts, of bean counters looking for the fast return and first mover advantage, is contrary to the public interest.
Tesla on Autopilot slams into parked fire truck on freeway
Source: The Mercury News
A Tesla Model S reportedly on “Autopilot” smashed into the back of a fire truck parked at a freeway accident scene Monday morning, authorities said.
The union representing Culver City firefighters whose truck was hit around 8:30 a.m. on Interstate 405 in Culver City tweeted that the Tesla driver said he had been using Tesla’s Autopilot system, which performs automated driving tasks.
The California Highway Patrol and Culver City Fire Department confirmed the southbound Tesla had struck the fire truck, but could not immediately confirm whether the vehicle had been on Autopilot.
The fire truck had been parked in the left emergency lane and carpool lane, blocking off the scene of a previous accident, with a CHP vehicle behind it and to the side, said Culver City Fire Department battalion chief Ken Powell.
~ snip ~
Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/22/tesla-on-autopilot-slams-into-parked-fire-truck-on-freeway/
The term "AUTOPILOT" is a misnomer that leads people into believing it has far more capabilities than it really does. Even though there are warnings that the driver should stay attentive, people are lulled into a false sense of security and begin to zone out if they are not an active participant in at least the majority of the car's operation.
Beyond that, Elon Musk wants fully autonomous operation based on visual cameras and RADAR alone (no LiDAR), which is truly inadequate for safe operation in a fairly standard range of operating conditions - never mind extremes.
Are Uber and Lyft drivers around the Valley breaking child car seat laws?
Short answer: Yes.
When I drove cab, I torqued off a few people because I would not drive a child without a car seat. When dispatching, I made a few more mad for not sending a cab without a car seat.
Very few things make me more upset than people who would place a child's life at such risk.
Trump could walk into the State Of The Union speech naked, growling, barking like a dog
Fox and Friends would call it a brilliant performance, and his supporters on social media would double down on posting "Still Your President" memes.
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