A woman crossing a street in Tempe was struck and killed by an Uber autonomous car at 10 pm Sunday night. Although it is too soon to tell for certain, it appears that the accident could not have been prevented no matter who was in control of the car.
Scene of the accident. Scroll left to see the poorly designed pedestrian path that the woman was apparently using before crossing the street.
According to police, a woman pushing a bicycle laden with shopping bags stepped from the roadway median into 35-mile-per-hour traffic. The Uber vehicle, which had a back-up human driver behind the wheel, did not have time to even brake before it hit her.
Transit agencies are in the habit of blaming the victims who are killed or injured when struck by light-rail trains. The reality is that accidents involving light rail are usually the result of poor design, and any design that puts 50- to 200-ton vehicles in the same streets as 1-1/2- to 2-ton vehicles and 0.1-ton pedestrians is a poor one.
In the same way, the real blame for the Tempe accident should be placed on poor street design. The above Google image shows the approximate location of the accident.
Rotate to the right to see a trail in an arroyo marked the “Shortcut from Mill Ave. to Lake View Dr.” This trail connects to the Canal Trail and some other trails east of Mill Avenue. Rotate to the left to see a paved continuation of this trail, which eventually connects to the Grand Canal Trail west of Mill Avenue. Zoom in to see a sign saying “No pedestrian crossing: Use crosswalk” with an arrow pointing to a crosswalk that is 500 feet to the right.
American Ginseng, that is cialis 100mg canada also known as erectile dysfunction, refers to when men are unable to achieve a satiating climax. Sildenafil Citrate 100mg dissolves more rapidly than other generic http://mouthsofthesouth.com/events/estate-auction-of-tommy-deal-deceased-see-covid-19-guidelines-on-left-tab-pics-here-flyer-coming-soon/ generic viagra wholesale. The use of this classification can help physicians characterize group of patients, provides the rationale for specific management strategies, and allows the design of future clinical trials with more accurate selection and stratification of the population under investigation. take a look at the shop here buying viagra from india What could be more convenient than having the prescription delivered to your door? In addition to increasing the effect of medication or recreational drugs containing nitrates (e.g. poppers) If you suffer from any type of cardiovascular condition (e.g. arrhythmia) If you suffer from liver or kidney disease (or if you are on dialysis); a blood cell disorder find that pharmacy shop levitra fast delivery such as anemia,sickle cell leukemia; or multiple myeloma, * a recent cardiac event (within the past 90 days);.
In other words, despite the pavement, pedestrians and cyclists using the canal trails aren’t supposed to cross the median strip. Instead, they are supposed to go on the sidewalk to the crosswalk on Curry Road. The pedestrian path across the median strip, however, is a tempting shortcut that saves close to two-tenths of a mile.
Aerial view of the paved paths in the median strip between north- and southbound Mill Avenue lanes with the probable path of the accident victim shown in red.
This means it would be natural for people traveling from the Grand Canal Trail to the Canal Trail to cross southbound Mill, use the paved path, then cross the northbound portion to get to the Loma Trail. I don’t know for certain, but it seems likely that this is what happened.
It’s hard for any kind of driver to stop when moving 35 miles per hour on a semi-limited access road and a pedestrian steps in front of you from out of nowhere in the dark. I don’t want to blame the victim, but I don’t think the car, whether controlled by a human or by a computer, is to blame either.
So the question that must be asked is why are there paved trails between the north and southbound lanes of Mill Avenue when there is no safe way for pedestrians to use those trails? We’ll know more soon, but I suspect this fatality is more due to bad urban design than to the autonomous car.
The Real question
is does this setback threaten O’Tooles robocar utopia
“The Real question
is does this setback threaten O’Tooles robocar utopia”
Why would it? The Antiplanner hasn’t portrayed autonomous vehicles as a utopia. He’s been realistic about the challenges to their adoption as well as the current limitations of the technology. By using the word “utopia” you’ve created a strawman.
By the way, 15 other pedestrians were killed by cars with human drivers yesterday. Those fatalities don’t usually make national headlines. So one pedestrian killed by an autonomous car is hardly a “setback.”
INB4 you guys just want terminator.
Blaming the crash on poor road design is of no help. The bubble has been burst and now the “magic” of driverless cars is no more. What this shows is that there will be accidents and deaths from driverless cars, and that it will take far more time for them to become accepted as most people predict. This gives ammunition to the opponents who will be well motivated to save a million jobs across the industries.
In the long run, this provides another area where driverless cars can improve. Places where pedestrian accidents are common can be “red flagged” in their GPS database and the cars can shift to a higher alert and slower speed when going through such areas.
This article summarizes the issue succinctly:
http://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/03/this-is-how-the-self-driving-dream-might-become-a-nightmare/556070/
I am even more certain now that Uber et al will run out of their remaining $10 billion in cash long before the robocars arrive to save them, probably years before.
And we’re supposed to rearrange our cities, transportation systems and policies to accommodate still what is turning out to be bad science fiction??
You obviously have no problem rearranging society, since according to you, we should do so in honor of glorious toy trains and sardine can apartment complexes.
“And we’re supposed to rearrange our cities”
We, who? No one here advocates central planning and collectivism, except a few sociopaths like you who lurk in the shadows.
“Our” cities? You don’t even live in a city.
Regarding Uber, at least it will go out of business if it fails to serve its customers. If only the same were true of Amtrak, TriMet, and other government transit agencies, all of which are highly inefficient at the best and corrupt at the worst; the reality is they would not exist without legalized theft as there are not enough people who would voluntarily support their obsolete tech.
I thought self-driving cars were supposed to not overdrive their headlights…..
That is not a women “jumping out into the street”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtTB8hTgHbM
“I don’t think the car, whether controlled by a human or by a computer, is to blame”.
Disagree. This is a scenario with three layers of protection: car, Uber, and a human back-up. All are to blame.
The car. This was a pickup derived battering ram, one of the most common yet dangerous vehicles on the road. Uber (and all others in the game) should employ bike/pedestrian-friendly vehicles.
I also suggest that its headlights were aimed too low.
The vehicle in question was also outfitted with Volvo’s so-called “City Safety Umbrella”, which supposedly detects when vehicles and even pedestrians and cyclists are in front of the car and if the driver does not react quickly enough, triggers an automatic braking system. The rub It activates between 2 and 30 mph. The Uber was doing 40.
Uber. Surely the base line test of any DL vehicle is detecting pedestrians, no?
Driver. Video shows the driver looking down for several seconds before the crash. Texting perhaps? (likely).
The victim was smart enough to have dismounted and cross under two street lights, but like most of us, was a slave to fashion where black is de facto nightwear. Dark Clothes Matter.
And while there was a sign urging pedestrians to use the crosswalk, it faced in the opposite direction.
Her bike didn’t have a light or even those rotating wheel reflectors that are so good at announcing where you are to oncoming traffic.
She was walking the bike across the street with the bike to her left, meaning that the on-coming Uber (to her right) was out of her sightline. She only saw it at the last second.
Overall street layout. Mentioned by the AP. A succerhole.
This unfortunate scenario could have been easily prevented by all actors using good judgement.
The accident chasers will have plenty of fun with this one.
There are two errors in this story. The simpler one is that this road, like most in the Phoenix metro, has a 45 MPH speed limit vs the 35 mentioned.
Secondly and more importantly, the impact location is off by 150 feet. The released video shows the bike lane line going from solid white to intermittent just behind the pedestrian and this puts it at the top of the “X” vs the bottom right leg.
The big question is simply why didn’t the cameras and LIDAR see and ID the pedestrian on a clear night with no rain or dust? Yes, she was wearing a black jacket and walking in a dark area on the street. But, we also know there are cameras that can see in low light and see heat sources very clearly in the darkest of conditions.