Driverless Waymo strikes San Francisco cyclist, police say

https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/06/waymo-collides-san-francisco-cyclist-police-say/

by hiddencost • 2 years ago

6 8 2 years ago

sfstandard.com

hiddencost• 2 years ago

Glad the cyclist is OK.

Not really enough detail to figure out if this was "a human could have avoided it" or not.

Fricken• 2 years ago

This would be a total non-story if it wasn't so political.

jeffbee2• 2 years ago

I hope Waymo releases videos of the incident.

Zigurd2• 2 years ago

This is Waymo's description of the incident:

"An oncoming large truck progressed through the intersection in our direction and then, at our turn to proceed, we moved into the intersection," Waymo said in a statement provided to The Standard. "The cyclist was occluded by the truck and quickly followed behind it, crossing into the Waymo vehicle’s path. When they became unoccluded, our vehicle applied heavy braking but was not able to avoid the collision."

That sure makes it sound unavoidable. But, would a human driver have seen the cyclist earlier and inferred they were behind the truck? Would a human driver have taken the turn slower because they could not see around the truck? If I were the cyclist I sure would not count on such careful drivers, but there could be lessons in this about AV technology.

jeffbee2• 2 years ago

The statement did not seem to imply that the Waymo was turning.

Zigurd2• 2 years ago

That's correct. The cyclist may have just passed behind the truck right into the path of the AV, neither having seen the other.

jqpabc123• 2 years ago

Until humans act like robots, most self driving accidents will be categorized as being caused by the humans involved.

When a self driving car slams on the brakes to avoid a piece of paper blowing across the road and gets rear ended, it is clearly the human driver's fault for following too closely and not being fully aware of the fact that the car in front of them lacked reason and judgment.

harmmonica• 2 years ago

The article says "near" the intersection of 17th and Mississippi, not at, but if (if!) Waymo is being accurate about what happened I think you can assume this was a 4-way stop (relevant Streetview: https://maps.app.goo.gl/vyH1xZAJ2qeZGbZK6). The truck goes before Waymo (again, if Waymo is representing this accurately) because Waymo thought the truck had right-of-way, the bike is behind the truck, which means the bike shouldn't have turned left in front of the Waymo until after the Waymo went through the intersection. As any SF resident will tell you it's not surprising the bike would fail to stop at the stop sign and wait its turn or even yield to the Waymo, but, again, if Waymo is telling the truth, what is the standard here? Is it "but would a human driver have stopped in time?" Or is it the rules of the road where the bike should've obeyed the stop sign and waited its turn?

One comment having recently taken a Waymo for the first time. I was actually taken aback at how quickly it would accelerate from stops. I was actually happy about it because it felt just like a real driver, but in this scenario with the bike perhaps the quick acceleration from the stop could've contributed to the bike not being able to clear in time.

Driverless Waymo strikes San Francisco cyclist, police say

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