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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by lgsp@feddit.it to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world

Wapo journalist verifies that robotaxis fail to stop for pedestrians in marked crosswalk 7 out of 10 times. Waymo admitted that it follows "social norms" rather than laws.

The reason is likely to compete with Uber, 🤦

Wapo article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/30/waymo-pedestrians-robotaxi-crosswalks/

Cross-posted from: https://mastodon.uno/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/113746178244368036

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[-] tibi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Training self driving cars that way would be irresponsible, because it would behave unpredictably and could be really dangerous. In reality, self driving cars use AI for only some tasks for which it is really good at like object recognition (e.g. recognizing traffic signs, pedestrians and other vehicles). The car uses all this data to build a map of its surroundings and tries to predict what the other participants are going to do. Then, it decides whether it's safe to move the vehicle, and the path it should take. All these things can be done algorithmically, AI is only necessary for object recognition.

In cases such as this, just follow the money to find the incentives. Waymo wants to maximize their profits. This means maximizing how many customers they can serve as well as minimizing driving time to save on gas. How do you do that? Program their cars to be a bit more aggressive: don't stop on yellow, don't stop at crosswalks except to avoid a collision, drive slightly over the speed limit. And of course, lobby the shit out of every politician to pass laws allowing them to get away with breaking these rules.

this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2024
431 points (96.5% liked)

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