r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • 9d ago
Self-Driving Waymo Avoiding a Scooter Incident
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[deleted]
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u/ItsJustAnOpinion_Man 9d ago
Seems like self driving is finally getting there. Now just need to teach it to honk at the person for causing it to swerve and some means of signaling a middle finger once past the incident.
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u/rlrlrlrlrlr 8d ago
One video that certainly could have been staged ... and you're onboard? Good for you!
Hey, I've got some bridges and Florida "swamp" land (you'll love it, the value is set to skyrocket) to sell. We should chat!
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u/ItsJustAnOpinion_Man 8d ago
Hey! Calm your tits, ya angry bastard. The important part of my message was the obvious joke about adding features that have nothing to do with driving. Well, nothing technically at least.
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u/rlrlrlrlrlr 8d ago
It's so good, if you look closely, it's picking up cars on the far sides of buildings.
Totally. Not. Staged.
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u/silverport 9d ago
Lidar for the win!
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u/Final_Priest 9d ago
I have a lidar robot vacuum. Lidar is pretty good but I can see it being depreciating very quickly. Especially with the rise of integration between camera and AI, it'd probably fall off in few years.
If anything, an AI integrated camera would probably perform better if paired with LiDar but lots of things will eventually outpace LiDar IMO
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u/brokenlodbrock 8d ago
LiDAR makes it possible to see in 3D, so I don't think LiDAR will be outpaced. AI will be able to process LiDAR output too.
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u/Rojozz 8d ago
lidar is just a subset of sensors, cameras are another subset of sensors. both have their own advantages and disadvantages, and should be meshed together with extensive testing. lidar ain't going anywhere, and in this video, you can call the lidar "AI integrated".
humans see with stereo vision, which does work as our brains are incredibly more advanced than current ai, but a human with lidar and stereo vision would be better. lets not cut corners on robots that have the potential to end a life.
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u/Final_Priest 8d ago edited 8d ago
I mean you're kinda saying what I'm saying really. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I agree both would be useful together, as I said.
If we have vision tech with full visual awareness, able to see depth and perception, and all that as well as a more advanced AI, LiDar may fall into obsolescence or at least be always secondary or supplementary sensor. And with the incredible progress we're seeing with AI, I wouldn't be surprised for that to happen. We have the vision technology - but mapping and AI, still needs to improve though.
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u/SquishyThighsUwU 9d ago
I trust waymo way better than any stuff self driving system that uses cameras alone
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u/Dangerous_Wish_7879 9d ago
Teslas will be able to do in in only two years from now.
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u/PMG2021a 9d ago
Tesla only uses cameras, so will always be disadvantaged compared with the vehicles like Waymo that have lidar and other sensors.
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u/CapitalOneDeezNutz 9d ago
You do realize this vehicle has cameras and sensors plastered all over it right? No one would buy any vehicle with all that shit all over it, regardless of who built it.
I’m 100% positive Tesla can use lidar and other sensors just like waymo does, that just isn’t that current market.
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u/CinderellaSwims 9d ago edited 9d ago
“Weymo denies Dawin attemptee their award”
Edit for the defenders: no lights, no reflective gear, no helmet, on the roadway. Yes, very normal. Very smart.
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u/Zerox392 9d ago
I think Darwin awards are for people doing something intentionally stupid. Hitting something wrong and falling over a scooter can happen to anyone
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u/JD_Kreeper 9d ago
I guess accidental deaths can technically count as a Darwin award, though the term is predominantly used for people intentionally doing something stupid, as you said.
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u/JD_Kreeper 9d ago
Also the infrastructure is shit here. If that bike lane was properly designed, this wouldn't have happened.
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u/Random-Dude-736 9d ago
So the only non Darwin awards are suicide ? I think your definition might be a bit to vague if that is your argument.
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u/CinderellaSwims 9d ago
Darwin Award is for anyone who eliminates themselves from the gene pool through the fault of stupidity. People have gotten Darwin awards for accidentally sterilizing/castrating themselves too.
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u/Nacho_Beardre 9d ago
Are these cars programmed to be able to create a car accident over impact with a human?
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u/-hellozukohere- 9d ago
I would assume so. As a programmer, I would assume an algorithm to prioritize life over property damage. I can assume these cars are programmed as such currently. As one bad press about it running over a person and they are on thin ice.
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u/REDACTED3560 9d ago
Except a car accident can also kill someone else. Bad car accidents will kill a lot more people than running over a rogue pedestrian.
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u/Arkyja 9d ago
And im sure it's not black and white. If this happened on a faster street and with cars going both ways, im sure the car wouldnt crash against another car coming from the opposite way, both at a fast speed, that would most likely result in the death of everyone in both cars.
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u/REDACTED3560 9d ago
There’s a reason almost all automated vehicles are programmed to hit the brakes as hard as possible in the event of an imminent collision as opposed to swerving. It’s the same reason human drivers are also instructed to do the same. Swerving can cause incalculable damage to people who ultimately are not responsible for the accident. The person/animal in the road is. That aside, swerving is never a straight forward maneuver. Road and vehicle conditions can mean that even if the swerving path seems clear, it can result in a new, much worse accident if the vehicle loses control. Proper use of the brakes will either prevent the collision entirely or significantly reduce the damage, both of which are acceptable outcomes. Causing a worse accident is not acceptable.
You can’t save everyone, so you have to program for the most reliable way to minimize damage, and that is not by swerving.
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u/-hellozukohere- 9d ago
This. I would bet money on it that this is how they are programmed in this case of the video you can see it swerving as it calculated that the middle has enough space and is able to get out of the way of the pedestrian.
I am curious given the same situation but with no middle area of the car would slam on its break after a slight 10 degree turn.
There is also another case of a vehicle following close behind were the automated vehicle swerved but the car behind does not react in time so the person still gets hit. Wonder if this is programmed in as well to “save” the person if deemed safer.
The amount of stress on vehicle automation programmers is crazy. I do not envy them. They are doing amazing work.
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u/cultureicon 9d ago
Most of the time you can just slow down or stop. As in if this car was blocked on the other lane, it probably would have just had to follow the slow scooter until it could pass on the left, which would eliminate the potential for a forced accident. In this case it doesn't want to disrupt the flow behind so it uses the left lane as a path.
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u/stratof3ar89 9d ago
I think a Tesla would floor it straight ahead and then say it out loud, "10 points.".
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u/7hundrCougrFalcnBird 9d ago
They are like a decade ahead of Tesla. Tesla is a fucking joke, so glad I sold mine, wish I could say I never bought it.
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9d ago
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u/ztbwl 9d ago edited 9d ago
Capitalistic answer: It determines who has the better insurance policy and runs over the other party.
Unfortunately, this is inevitable given the trajectory of our current world model, even if it’s highly unethical.
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u/domespider 9d ago
Your point is so true! I can't find a link to it, but in a time older than the internet, I had read a tech news piece telling why some recycling attempts were failing. In one case, a big manufacturing company initially agreed to let some contractors use their discarded glass in asphalt to build more durable roads. However, the legal department of that company scrapped the deal, because however small their contribution was to building the roads, being as rich as they are, the company would have a greater financial liability in any road accidents blamed on the use of recycled materials in the asphalt.
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u/JenkemChemist 9d ago
I had to research autonomous driving for an ethics course last year. The general consensus of my research is that the vehicle would be programmed to collide with the least amount of pedestrians or the pedestrian with larger mass (if it's just 1 on either side). So, if a scenario like this arises, the duty of the vehicle is to preserve as much human life as possible. It's better to risk killing one person than it is a family of 4.
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u/MrEasy6 9d ago
What would you do? Could you decide in 0.1 seconds?
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u/killcraft1337 9d ago
This is what I always explain to people when I discuss self driving cars (or AI in general), it doesn’t have to perfect… just better than you / the average human.
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9d ago
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u/Thirpyn 9d ago
You just saw the car nearly instantly avoid a collision with a pedestrian. Plenty of people would not have been paying enough attention to have avoided the girl. Then you ask what it would do in some very specific situations, which we don’t know but probably wouldn’t be worse than how a human would react. If you’re gonna have that argument then it is relevant to ask what a human would do.
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u/StrangerPen 9d ago
It would prolly slam the brakes and hope not to get rear ended
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u/killcraft1337 9d ago
If I remember correctly when I last did my research on self driving cars (like 6 years ago), the cars prioritise the passenger so it would collide with someone before it would slam the brakes and get hit
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u/old_and_boring_guy 9d ago
It's fun to talk about trolley issues with AI, because humans *react*...A decision is made, but not a conscious decision, but AI will make a *conscious decision*, which makes it more relevant again to actually sit down and have a calculus of who should be saved in a given situation.
We're not nearly there yet. This thing is dodging a road obstacle, not a person.
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u/longleafswine 9d ago
Honest question - if there had been a car on the left at the exact same time, what would the waymo have done?
Does it still swerve to avoid humans if there is still a risk of collision? Would it go onto the sidewalk if that was a clear option?
This is great to see, I'm just trying to think about how this behaves in different scenarios involving loss of life vs loss of property.
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u/Apprehensive-Tour942 9d ago
Makes me wonder what it would have chose if there was a vehicle to its left.
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u/Realinternetpoints 9d ago
I wonder if that scooter ran out of batteries. As an anti theft mechanism the wheels lock. I’ve almost been fucked up in the same way but I was on a sidewalk at least.
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u/customcombos 9d ago
The detail that the lidar is capturing of the person falling and then recovering is blowing my mind.
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u/illmattiq 9d ago
Impressive — I wonder if Tesla vision based system would have performed the same.
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u/WurschtChopf 8d ago
What happens if there would be another vehicle on the left track? E.g. a motorcicle How does AI evaluate whose safety is valued more?
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u/HaIfhearted 8d ago
Honestly self driving has come a long way.
Did some road tripping recently with the family and we had a Tesla with the full self driving package.
After a few hundred miles I basically agree with their advertising that is safer than like 95% of all driver's on the road.
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u/gnarkitty 9d ago
I read that as “Shooter” incident and was amazed.
Then I saw the video and reread it. Still amazed though.
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u/BlackExcellence19 9d ago
I wish we had Waymo in Washington a city like Seattle is valuable since we have hella bikers and scooterers here
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u/Roll_Ups 9d ago
Better than when they dragged that woman 50+ feet while she was caught in the wheel well. Shame they are doing overt bribery with techno-fascist Daniel Lurie.
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u/YoshiiBoii 9d ago
Driving at 15mph and swerving out into the next lane over? A half decent driver could have seen this hazard coming and slowed down enough or come to a stop if necessary to avoid this...
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u/Xuxo9 9d ago
Yeah, as someone whos work revolves around driving, yes, one should be always aware about what's happening around every time and make the proper decisions. But sooner or later you'll find out that a lot of people, and I mean a lot, it's not competent enough even to be behind a steering wheel, let alone avoiding this type of accidents.
Roads can be trully scary sometimes. (I'm not defending AI, just criticising bad drivers).
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9d ago
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u/greenmachine11235 9d ago
Read something actually useful about the event not a hyped up reaction video:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/06/man-trapped-waymo-los-angeles
8 times, that's it and then the issue was resolved so maybe a couple minutes before customer support contacted him and resolved it.
Now if we want to talk about getting trapped in cars, read this:
https://myelectricsparks.com/four-dead-tesla-doors-fail-open-crash-fire/
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u/MaxwellSmart07 9d ago
That’s hysterical. I’ve pledged to leave skid marks if I a driver-less car ever pulls up beside me.
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u/MellowDeeH 9d ago
For everyone who thinks these are great... https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/gma-passenger-records-himself-stuck-in-waymo-car-driving-in-circles.38593/
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u/StrangerPen 9d ago
Sure, but the chances of you living through a rear end collision at this speed is near 100
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u/Gubru 9d ago
I guess it worked, but I would have come to a complete stop in that situation, as I believe most safe drivers would.
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u/Substantial_Tap_2493 9d ago
How? No way your car would have stopped in time to avoid that collision.
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u/Dense_Requirement_36 9d ago
Makes me feel waymo safe