Apple Autonomous Test Vehicle Involved in Accident on August 24

[jagolden]

In driving school, you learn that the vehicle who rear ends another is at fault no matter what. If you hit someone, you get a ticket for following too closely. There are only two ways to rear end someone -- following too closely, or being distracted and not hitting the brake fast enough.

The article said the Apple car was waiting for a gap in highway traffic while trying to merge. You can't get onto the highway by putting your car inside of another car, that's not how physics work; you have to wait for a gap.

People are on their phones too much these days. The driver of the Leaf was probably texting.

Ya, been there. But it doesn’t always work that way.
Up here, if you slam on your brakes because some animal (squirrel, rabbit, cat, dog, turkey, etc.) runs out in front of your car, and someone rear ends you, you both get cited. Personally I think that’s heartless, but...

 

[riverfreak]

How do you avoid someone rear ending you when you’re at the end of a merge lane? Quickly accelerate into traffic or drive off the road?
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Depends how heavy traffic is. A human driver will likely nose his or her way into traffic, assuming that the humans driving the other vehicles will let them in. But an autonomous car likely needs to be more cautious.

AI is capable of being more consistent and rules-focused than human drivers. It is not more intelligent. Not even close.

You are completely ignoring the role that ML plays in autonomous vehicles, and more broadly in AI.

 

[jerryk]

37,000 killed in traffic accidents in 2016 in US alone, 95% caused by human error. Let's hope Apple and other companies can protect us from ourselves
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Whoa, what am I missing in the article. Where does it say the Leaf was following too closely? Apparently things have changed since I went to driving school but you never stop when merging onto a highway (unless there’s a STOP sign) <1 mph would be considered a stop.

Thank god I live in MA where people know how to drive. Like they say on Big Brother, "Expect the unexpected". No problems.

You need to driver Lawrence Expressway during commute time. It has blind leading corners leading to 100 o(or less) foot long on ramps on ramps. And traffic can is often bumper to bumper.

 

[mi7chy]

Merging lanes on Lawrence Expressway at Kifer Rd is free flowing in both directions right now at ~4pm and with four lanes per direction there should be no reason for Apple Car to stop on it at 2:58pm when traffic is even lighter unless its autonomous merging algorithm is broken.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3734219,-121.9961184,17z/data=!5m1!1e1

 

[zapm]

Of course it was a Leaf!

Something like this

 

[scrapesleon]

Very minor issue

 

[MEJHarrison]

Apparently things have changed since I went to driving school but you never stop when merging onto a highway (unless there’s a STOP sign) <1 mph would be considered a stop.

Or it's a poorly written article and Apple didn't program their vehicle to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous.

I guess you're welcome to whichever assumptions you care to believe.

 

[curmudgeonette]

Apparently things have changed since I went to driving school but you never stop when merging onto a highway (unless there’s a STOP sign) <1 mph would be considered a stop.

Lawrence is not a highway. It is an "Expressway". It has traffic signals at each major intersection. Between intersections, there are no businesses nor homes fronting onto the expressways. Mid block there might be right turn only access to a side street or a major employer.

 

[griz]

Here's the non-clickbait headline..."Nissan leaf crashes into Apple autonomous vehicle"?

 

[curmudgeonette]

Merging lanes on Lawrence Expressway at Kifer Rd is free flowing in both directions right now at ~4pm and with four lanes per direction there should be no reason for Apple Car to stop on it at 2:58pm when traffic is even lighter unless its autonomous merging algorithm is broken.

There are four southbound lanes on Lawrence approaching the Kifer light, and four leaving. The right turn and merge lane from Kifer is about 140 feet measured from the Kifer curb to the point where the merge lane is no longer wide enough for a vehicle. (It is 100 feet from the Kifer curb to the painted "inverse gore point".)

The southbound Lawrence traffic may have recently gotten a green light and the Apple Car was waiting for the resulting "peloton" of traffic to clear.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

That'd be a dream crash. I'd roll on the ground, gripping my leg, screaming, "OW OW OW! I NEED A TOP LINE iMAC PRO--STAT!!"

apple has deep pockets I can get you easy cash payout

 

[Abazigal]

Accidents are inevitable in the process of testing. Expect more of such disclosures as Apple ramps up their self-driving car initiative.

 

[Rogifan]

Is autonomous and self driving the same thing?

 

[ColBatGuano]

This is the most relevant the Nissan Leaf has Ever been, being involved in a collision with the Apple autonomous vehicle.

Given it was a Leaf I can only imagine that a front end crash would actually improve the look of the car.

 

[TechZeke]

In driving school, you learn that the vehicle who rear ends another is at fault no matter what. If you hit someone, you get a ticket for following too closely. There are only two ways to rear end someone -- following too closely, or being distracted and not hitting the brake fast enough.

The article said the Apple car was waiting for a gap in highway traffic while trying to merge. You can't get onto the highway by putting your car inside of another car, that's not how physics work; you have to wait for a gap.

People are on their phones too much these days. The driver of the Leaf was probably texting.

Thanks to Consumer Reports and IIHS, most new vehicles these days come with automatic emergency braking and Forward Collision Warning.

Really, if you’re a good/safe driver you won’t be rear ending people. Being a recent college grad, I was shocked by how many students admitted that they rear ended or had a fender bender because they themselves or the person who hit them was looking at their phone.

 

[mac_in_tosh]

I have a Level 2 Driving Assistance on my 2018 Audi S5 and it works pretty well but I wouldn't trust it 100%. It saves you a lot of strain, specially in stop and go traffic but the world is not ready for Self Driving cars yet.

Agree. If Siri is any indication of AI, I'm leery of this big push toward autonomous vehicles. The software cannot anticipate every situation/condition and adapt as a human would, imperfect as we are. The "bug fixes" we usually encounter with OS and app updates could have far more serious consequences with these vehicles. I can just imagine..."this vehicle operating system update fixes a bug in which under certain emergency situations the windshield wipers would engage instead of the brakes."

In my opinion, the only way for this to work is for ALL cars to be autonomous and to communicate with each other.

That would help.

 

[69Mustang]

That’s the problem with self driving cars. They are made to follow rules. Hence the Apple autonomous car going less than 1 mph to find a gap to merge into another lane. Everyone knows you gotta stick your nose into the other lane and force yourself in there!

I know what you say is partially in jest, but it points to an issue that autonomous systems makers have been feverishly trying to overcome: the lack of humanity in their algorithms. Until it's all AI, that's going to be key in mixed AI and human driving. There are times where following the rules creates the danger or creates the congestion. Designers are trying to augment their AI with human type contextual judgment. There are simple things we take for granted that AI (without training) just won't know. When AI can better understand the nuances of how to drive like humans we will be much, much further along.

 

[apolloa]

Well, at least it’s following the autonomous vehicle trend of crashing...

It doesn’t state his fault it was though? But I know I wouldn’t go anywhere near an Uber self driving car!

Well I actually think the whole things one dumb stupid idea! Their needs to be MUCH tighter controls before this tech is allowed anywhere near the roads, but no, it’s being shoved into us no matter what.. so all roads users are at risk. I believe in the next year or two cars able to be fully autonomous will be on sale.

 

[Kettil]

Humans are dangerous. We need to get them away from behind the wheel as fast as we can.

Humans also learn. I'd rather have an intelligent car teach me how to drive better, than stopping me from driving altogether. I wouldn't want a society where AI (or similar market forces) decides what humans should and shouldn't govern. There are too many factors involved even in 'autonomous' traffic, including humans, for me to believe that accidents can be prevented altogether.

To me, it is a big mistake to have so many cars on the roads as we have. We should have more railroads, expanded bike lanes, more pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, more parks and green areas so we don't have to travel so much before we relax.
Sorry for going off on a tangent, but I like to think about the bigger picture

 

[I14]

Whoa, what am I missing in the article. Where does it say the Leaf was following too closely? Apparently things have changed since I went to driving school but you never stop when merging onto a highway (unless there’s a STOP sign) <1 mph would be considered a stop.

Thank god I live in MA where people know how to drive. Like they say on Big Brother, "Expect the unexpected". No problems.

I live very close to that intersection. Lawrence Expressway is an expressway, not a highway. The speed limit on the expressway is 50 and you have maybe 50 feet to get up to speed before merging. Unless traffic is stopped you wait patiently for the light to turn, stopping traffic before you merge. Unless that is you have a Tesla in Ludicrous mode…

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I'm outraged?

Why are you doubting your own outrage?

 

[69Mustang]

Is autonomous and self driving the same thing?

Self driving is a colloquial term generally meaning autonomous driving. Autonomous driving is categorized by levels from 0-5 (Level 0 = no sustained automated vehicle control Level 5 = no human intervention required.)
Thanks Wikipedia!

 

[coolfactor]

With all the sensors merging should be a piece of cake vs stopping on the expressway like what a bad or inexperienced driver would do. Also, doesn't it have collision avoidance like Tesla to avoid those situations?

Read the article. They were "rear"-ended.

 

[velocityg4]

In driving school, you learn that the vehicle who rear ends another is at fault no matter what. If you hit someone, you get a ticket for following too closely. There are only two ways to rear end someone -- following too closely, or being distracted and not hitting the brake fast enough.

Those aren’t the only ways. Someone suddenly cutting right in front of you then slamming on the brakes before you can react. Someone suddenly pulling into traffic too close for you to stop.

Changing lanes and slamming on the brakes to cause an accident. Especially in front of an expensive car. Is a fairly well known scam. Which is why a dash cam is a good idea. At least in areas with at fault laws.

 

[Kabeyun]

That'd be a dream crash. I'd roll on the ground, gripping my leg, screaming, "OW OW OW! I NEED A TOP LINE iMAC PRO--STAT!!"

How many thousand kilometers did they do before having this first accident?
They're in alpha and they're already on the way to be better than us humans...

With all the sensors merging should be a piece of cake vs stopping on the expressway like what a bad or inexperienced driver would do. Also, doesn't it have collision avoidance like Tesla to avoid those situations?

Accidents are inevitable in the process of testing. Expect more of such disclosures as Apple ramps up their self-driving car initiative.

Sometimes I think MR posts these nonstories with headlines just misleading enough to test whether or not people actually then read the story. Clearly not all do. You’d have been better served with “Nissan rear-ends near-stationary [automous] [Apple] car.”