Maelochs

The car had a human driver, the bicycle had a human operator as well .... Blame The Humans!!

tyrion

+1

02Giant 

Won't have Ninety5 around to give a hard time to...Banned Users

350htrr

+1. There WILL be many more. BUT, after awhile when it's proven, that AV can be "better than human drivers" it will still take off. For commercial vehicles first, but later for all vehicle's... It's practically a given...

Dunbar

Edit, the news stories say she was crossing the street on foot from west to east. I’m not sure this has much to do with cycling. I see pedestrians crossing mid-block all the time to avoid walking the half block to the intersection to use the cross-walk.

https://m.imgur.com/tc9pazj\

https://m.imgur.com/sjwVXZe

Hoopdriver

Odd that they constructed that "X" of a pavement in the median looking quite like a walkway and then post signs prohibiting walking on them.

CB HI

Seems they are not sure the death was a pedestrian or cyclist

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/03/19/...olvo-fatality/

Seems even worse since the car failed to detect either the walking woman or the bicycle.


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Daniel4

Terrible tragedy for something we expect so much better. This was still going through a city test for which it failed.

Having said that nobody cares about the thousands of deaths caused by human-driven vehicles from which they all passed their tests. And some are on the road driving with suspended licences.

noisebeam

You don't know that.

noisebeam

Not odd at all. In the desert all kinds of landscaping decorations are used in place of grass. Pavers included.

Note on far right the 'worn/dusty' area leading into the X from the road.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4362...7i13312!8i6656

Also note from aerial view the path on the east side leading to the worn part of the X .
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4363.../data=!3m1!1e3

I have walked and cycled very often in the area for years, but there are better places to cross (there is an underpass too)

unterhausen

since she was walking a bicycle, that pretty much rules out the scenario where she just walked out in front of the car in my mind. That can be pretty tough. I assume they have good video

Okay, so I'm not sure if she really was walking the bike or not. Maybe she was riding. I'm guessing the people in the car weren't paying attention, so they aren't going to know until they look at video

I-Like-To-Bike

True, maybe the Uber AV car did detect the woman and or bicycle before it ran them down.

Dunbar

It does seem odd to have signs that say “use cross walk” when there’s no obvious way to get to the cross-walk due to the landscaping. Not to mention you’re on a median so it’s not clear to me what you’re supposed to do once you get to the cross-walk since you’re already in the middle of the street.

noisebeam

One is never supposed to jaywalk to the median in the first place. Medians are on many streets here and are often landscaped with pavers. The cross walk is at Washington/Curry. There is also an underpass under Mill just south of Red Mountain freeway. I have crossed using both the crosswalk and underpass dozens of times.

I-Like-To-Bike

That's OK, there lots of other fan-bois about to spout the promoter's standard excuse, "it was the driver's fault" or "it was the pedestrian's fault" or maybe as close as an admission as anyone will ever get from these tools "you have to crack a couple of eggs when making an omelet."

350htrr

Really...? Yes, even one death is too many. But, when compared to 40,000 deaths a year and maybe a million injuries per year, from humans driving, if AV driven vehicles reduce it even 10%, that would be a HUGE difference in my book... Want to do the numbers...? Wait, I will do them for you. 4,000 lives saved per year, 100,000 lives spared injury per year... what about 10 years, what about the 100 years or so that vehicles been around, an astounding number would pop up, "IF" you want to do those numbers... Come on, do the numbers... Wait, I will do them for you, 10 years, add a 0, that's 40,000 and 1,000,000, for the 100 years add 2 0's, that's 400,00 and 10,000,000... and those are the numbers that could/would be saved, 10%...

Dunbar

OK, but that gets back to the point of why there would be paved area of the median that looks a lot like sidewalk in the first place? Why not just leave it landscaped with gravel and plants? It just seems like a strange design decision. Look at this Google Maps link and tell me that doesn’t look like a sidewalk?

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4362...7i13312!8i6656

Dunbar

The police are saying the woman was walking her bike across the street from the center median (west-to-east). It seems like she may have just walked out in front of the Uber self-driving car while taking a shortcut.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4362.../data=!3m1!1e3

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4362...7i13312!8i6656

noisebeam

Same view I posted in #1876.
It is not a sidewalk as there is no curb cut and sidewalks in this area are concrete. It is pretty obvious in person when on the sidewalk looking toward the median.

noisebeam

Maybe she looked left first not realizing it is one way.

Kontact 

No amount of automation is going to make a 4000 pound car stop instantaneously if someone walks out in front of it. The accident rate with robot cars, no matter how good they are, can never be zero if the other road users aren't also machines.

DrIsotope

So... lady steps off of a center median nowhere near an intersection, at 10 o'clock at night, and gets hit by a car. Doesn't matter if it was being driven by a person or a computer, she was gonna get hit.

noisebeam

Correct, but we don't know yet if that was the case or not. Given the information provided it could be an error by either or both parties.

Rules on crossing where there is not a cross walk. If reports are correct (they may not be) that she was crossing road then it was in violation of C:
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00793.htm

Even at a crosswalk one can not step in front of traffic if driver would be unable to yield in time:
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/28/00792.htm

noisebeam

That is my suspicion also, but we don't have the facts. Just early reports and speculation.

A computer driver with night 'vision' better than a human (lidar) would be more likely to avoid collision in this case as it would 'see' the person on the median in the dark and anticipate a crossing when a human could not.

DrIsotope

There are great numbers of pedestrians that believe that having the "right of way," whether in a crosswalk or not, forms some sort of impenetrable barrier around them-- I've watched people step out in front of any number of vehicles (including bikes,) presumably because they think the vehicles "have to stop." I'm not here claiming that most drivers aren't a-holes, but most pedestrians are every bit as distracted, and can be at fault for getting hit about half the time.