[SystemSafety] Autonomously Driven Car Kills Pedestrian

[Tom Ferrell]

While we may all have our own opinions on the pace and focus of this innovation, it is incumbent on the people on this list to be at the fore front of safety for both ground and flying autonomous vehicles.  This revolution is coming whether we like it or not.  Simply piling on the ‘quick to judgement’ of both the media and political talking heads is not constructive, and in fact, antithetical to cause of ensuring safety in my opinion.

What we should be asking is whether the systems being employed in these vehicles have been developed correctly in accordance with ISO26262 or similar standard.  IF so, what part of the process failed: missing hazard, insufficient requirements, inadequate verification, etc.  If such a standard was not followed, then we should be pushing hard to highlight the absence of a proper safety approach.  I assert that there is nothing yet available from this latest incident that truly allows these questions to be answered and thus it is premature to draw any sound technical judgement.

From: systemsafety [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Dick
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2018 7:37 AM
To: C. Michael Holloway
Cc: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Autonomously Driven Car Kills Pedestrian

Yesterday there were over 100 people killed in traffic accidents in the US

This is the only one to receive ore than local coverage-  if that

As for Michael's comment there are a lot of "experts" providing renta-quotes.

But the local police chief says something that aligns with Andrew


The San Francisco Chronicle late on Monday reported that Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir said that from viewing videos taken from the vehicle "it's very clear it would have been difficult to avoid this collision in any kind of mode (autonomous or human-driven) based on how she came from the shadows right into the roadway."

Moir told the Chronicle, "I suspect preliminarily it appears that the Uber would likely not be at fault in this accident," but she did not rule out that charges could be filed against the operator in the Uber vehicle, the paper reported.

On 20 Mar 2018, at 12:19, C. Michael Holloway <c.m.holloway at nasa.gov<mailto:c.m.holloway at nasa.gov>> wrote:
 On 2018-03-20 (07.00.27), andrew at andrewbanks.com<mailto:andrew at andrewbanks.com> wrote:

>From first reports, seems more of a case of "pedestrian walks out in front of car, and gets run over"



The autonomous aspect appears not relevant?


The reports that I have read do not even hint that the case is likely one in which the pedestrian would be deemed at fault.  Of course, Uber and other driverless car zealots will try to make that case. I believe, and hope, they will fail.

Excellent quotes in this story from the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/03/19/uber-halts-autonomous-vehicle-testing-after-a-pedestrian-is-struck/

'Missy Cummings, a robotics expert at Duke University who has been critical of the swift rollout of driverless technology, said the computer-vision systems for self-driving cars are “deeply flawed” and can be “incredibly brittle,” particularly in unfamiliar circumstances.

'Companies have not been required by the federal government to prove that their robotic driving systems are safe. “We’re not holding them to any standards right now,” Cummings said, arguing that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should provide real supervision.'
--
All the best,
C. Michael Holloway (cMh)
Senior Research Computer Engineer
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton VA USA
bit.ly/cmhpubs<http://bit.ly/cmhpubs>

Verba volant, scripta manent
spoken words fly away, written words remain

(The words in this message are mine alone;
neither blame nor credit NASA for them.)
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