As US Officials Showed Off a Self-Driving Robo-Bus - It Got Hit By a Tesla Driver (msn.com)
- Reference: 0180603766
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/17/0228239/as-us-officials-showed-off-a-self-driving-robo-bus---it-got-hit-by-a-tesla-driver
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/officials-showed-off-a-robo-bus-in-dc-it-got-hit-by-a-tesla-driver/ar-AA1UmQno
> The U.S. Department of Transportation brought an automated bus to D.C. this week to showcase its work on self-driving vehicles, taking officials from around the country on a ride between agency headquarters at Navy Yard and Union Station. One of those trips was interrupted Sunday when the bus got rear-ended.
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> The bus, produced by the company Beep, was following its fixed route when it was struck by a Tesla with Maryland plates whose driver was trying to change lanes, officials said. The bus had a human driver behind the wheel for backup as required by the city. The Tesla driver stayed on the scene on H Street for about 10 minutes. No police were called.
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> "The service was temporarily paused after another vehicle made an illegal lane change and contacted the rear of the autonomous bus, which resulted in minor cosmetic damage to both vehicles," a spokesman for Beep said in a statement. "The autonomous bus operated appropriately in the moment and, after review, it was determined the autonomous bus was safe to resume service."
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> Beep is working with the [U.S.] Transportation Department and Carnegie Mellon University on a pilot program of automated public buses. The vehicle was brought to D.C. for an annual conference that brings together transportation researchers and policymakers...
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/officials-showed-off-a-robo-bus-in-dc-it-got-hit-by-a-tesla-driver/ar-AA1UmQno
Outside of the humor what's the big deal? (Score:2)
Bad human drivers get into accidents all the time. What's the purpose of this story other than it involving an automated vehicle getting hit and being a bit funny for that reason?
It seems like we're still decades away from a point where most vehicles on the road will be operating autonomously. Even with the technology getting better, it will take at least that long for most of the older models without those capabilities to go out of service and over the next decade a majority of new vehicles sold won't h
Re: (Score:3)
> Bad human drivers get into accidents all the time. What's the purpose of this story other than it involving an automated vehicle getting hit and being a bit funny for that reason? .
Here in Europe [1]AEBS systems [wikipedia.org] mandatory in every vehicle registered from 2018 onwards, from cars up to 44 tonne semi-trucks, would have detected the possibility of a collision and put on the brakes automatically to prevent it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_emergency_braking_system
Lack of information.... (Score:2)
AEB is mandatory in the USA also, but you're putting too much faith in the technology if you believe that it can and will prevent all collisions. Most manufacturers describe it in terms of "reduce the severity of impact". In this type of accident (merging into another vehicle), the AEB system would have very little information beforehand to cause it to activate.
Barely a bus (Score:2)
Looks more like a high roof minibus. When they put the tech into a full length city bus it'll be more useful though I imagine navigating one of them though busy traffic is a whole lot harder.
Driving Standards (Score:2)
All this proves is that some drivers are so bad they can't even see a bus in front of their nose and shouldn't be driving. Unfortunately compared to most developed countries, the US has very a low standard to meet before being issued a license.
The irony! (Score:2)
It would have been just perfect if a self-driving Robo bus took out a self-driving Waymo.