The company left out some key details regarding the incident involving one of its robotaxis and a pedestrian.
On October 2, 2023, a woman was run over and pinned to the ground by a Cruise robotaxi. Given the recent string of very public malfunctions the robotaxis have been experiencing in San Francisco, it was only a matter of time until a pedestrian was hurt by the self-driving cars. New reports, though, suggest that Cruise held back one of the most horrifying pieces of information: that the woman was dragged 20 feet by the robotaxi after being pushed into its path.
The LA Times reports:
A car with a human behind the wheel hit a woman who was crossing the street against a red light at the intersection of 5th and Market Streets. The pedestrian slid over the hood and into the path of a Cruise robotaxi, with no human driver. She was pinned under the car, and was taken to a hospital.
But this is what Cruise left out:
What Cruise did not say, and what the DMV revealed Tuesday, is that after sitting still for an unspecified period of time, the robotaxi began moving forward at about 7 mph, dragging the woman with it for 20 feet.
read more: https://jalopnik.com/woman-hit-by-cruise-robotaxi-was-dragged-20-feet-1850963884
archive link: https://archive.ph/8ENHu
Maybe instead of robo card we could invest in public transit which.
But how will tech companies profit off public transit?
Boring Company: “hold my beer”
I remember someone here chiding others for critizing Cruise. They were talking up the “fact” that the car stopped and let emergency services dictate what to do instead of risk harming her further. It was GOOD that the car stopped on her.
No matter what happens, anything or anywhere. There will always be people defending it. I wonder if that person is glad to hear the car heroically dragged her out of traffic?
I think a lot of people forget that machines and AI are not infallible gods. Like a few dings from some highly charged particles from space and next thing you know they flip a 1 and 0 somewhere in their code and run that instead.
Tell that self driving car "experts. Because there is a silicon chip controlling they think it’s automatically better than a human. Said experts have never heard of random failures (that’s besides bugs).
The term your looking for is called “special pleading”. It’s when you ignore relevant facts to make your claim seem more legitimate.
“Yeah it’s a computer and computers can have glitches but it’s still better because it’s AI and it’s smarter than humans.”
It’s true computers are more efficient at some tasks than humans but there is no way we are anywhere near the level of having one of these things think like us.
The question isn’t whether they’re infallible, just whether they’re less fallible then humans, which is a far lower bar when it comes to driving.
On the other hand, there’s people who will condemn the very concept of self-driving cars because of the kind of event that happens every day with regular ol’ human-piloted cars.
This is a serious incident, it should be thoroughly investigated, regulations on safety and reporting should be seriously considered. But don’t strangle the baby in the crib: self-driving cars have the potential to be much safer than human-driven cars (arguably, they already are). When there’s stories about Cruise taxis stopping in an intersection and the response is an overwhelming flood of “ban all self-driving cars!”, it causes proponents to get overly defensive.
When there’s stories about Cruise taxis stopping in an intersection and the response is an overwhelming flood of “ban all self-driving cars!”, it causes proponents to get overly defensive.
But the problem is those events are happening. People are wanting to strangle that baby because the kid is causing harm in the real world. The cars DO need to be taken off the streets, but that doesn’t mean they should be outlawed. However, they absolutely are not fit for public service. As someone who has “driven” a Tesla while it was “Full Self Driving”, and I gotta tell ya that it just can’t handle the rules of the road. It’s not better than a human. We can adapt to new situations on the fly, but a self driving car can only operate in certain parameters.
While I sympathize that there is nothing you can do about this, the real fault lies with the companies putting vehicles on the road before they are ready. Without a doubt, someday they will be. But as corporations push this out the door in the rush to be the first and the new name brand, they do so at the public expense. It’s the root problem for the cycle of backlash, resentment and defensiveness.
If these need to be taken off the streets then all cars need to be, which I’m not totally opposed to. These ones have been on the streets in SF for a while and Im more afraid of human drivers then these, they are very cautious and more often then not they’ll err on the side of just stopping. That’s what most of the incidents have been, it just stopping and holding up traffic. Even in this scenario it was a human who did the actual hit and run. I’ve been in them a couple times now and feel safer in them then an Uber most times, they never try and blow through a yellow light cause they want to get to their next ride, they wont even speed.
These also aren’t comparable to Tesla auto pilot. They have way more sensors while Tesla seems to be focused purely on cameras. Teslas are also trying to make a general solution for the whole country whereas these were specifically trained and work in SF. There’s a reason they got approved for full self driving in the city while Tesla hasn’t even applied yet.
I didn’t know Cruise was a company and at first envisioned this happening aboard a large ship.
Better than what my brain suggested… “Tom Cruise has finally lost it, then.”
That ship has sailed.
They need to be sued into nonexistence. As well as the fuckers who voted to authorize them to operate these deathtraps.
I don’t fully disagree but they have clearly tried to jump to market without fully investigating the problems. Things like this need serious regulation and that doesn’t exist right now.
Damn, he sure ramps things up for his new movies.
