[msb-alumni] Our cars would have avoided fatal hit, says Waymo CEO

From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 17:53:35 -0400

BlankOur cars would have avoided fatal hit, says Waymo CEO . Faiz Siddiqui.

Tech firm promotes its safety after a self-driving Uber killed a pedestrian

Nearly a week after an autonomous Uber SUV claimed the first life in testing of
self-driving vehicles, the CEO of another tech company says he is confident its
cars would have performed differently under the circumstances.

John Krafcik, chief executive of Waymo, formerly Google's autonomous-vehicle
project, said Waymo's cars are intensively programmed to avoid such calamities.
"I can say with some confidence that in situations like that one with
pedestrians -- in this case a pedestrian with a bicycle -- we have a lot of
confidence that our technology would be robust and would be able to handle
situations like that," Krafcik said Saturday during a panel at the National
Automobile Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas.

Krafcik had been asked directly whether a Waymo car would have reacted
differently than the self-driving Uber.

"I want to be really respectful of Elaine [Herzberg], the woman who lost her
life and her family," he said. "I also want to recognize the fact that there
are
many different investigations going on now regarding what happened in Tempe
on Sunday."

His assessment, he said, was "based on our knowledge of what we've seen so far
with that accident and our own knowledge of the robustness that we've designed
into our systems."

Krafcik was referring to 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, who was killed March 18
when a self-driving Uber struck her as she
walked a bicycle across a Tempe, Ariz., street. Video footage graphically
illustrated how the autonomous Volvo XC90 and its backup driver failed to
protect Herzberg, who was outside a marked crosswalk, as she walked across the
road at about 10:30 p.m.

Waymo is testing its self-driving fleet in parts of Phoenix, where autonomous
taxis are shuttling some members of the public. The company has a fleet of
Chrysler Pacifica minivans with custom-designed hardware that undergoes
rigorous
testing, including in open and closed environments and through rigorous
computer
simulations, according to a Waymo spokeswoman.

Asked for the basis on which Krafcik made his claim, Waymo pointed to its
hardware and testing regimen, which includes closed-course testing at night in
which pedestrians sometimes unexpectedly enter the road, according to the
company. The cars operate on public roads and pull data from those situations
to
create simulations of cities where Waymo operates, such as Phoenix and Austin.

Under that setup, Waymo says, the company can repeat a single testing scenario
thousands of times. Waymo says its equipment has run through thousands of
scenarios focused exclusively on avoiding collisions involving pedestrians.

The vehicles are equipped with custom LiDAR, radar equipment and other sensors,
according to Waymo. (LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging.)

Last fall, Waymo became the first company to issue a detailed safety report to
federal officials on its self-driving vehicle program, under a voluntary
self-assessment program. The 43-page safety report detailed the company's
efforts to account for everyday road scenarios that lead to automobile crashes:

"We've staged people jumping out of canvas bags or porta-potties on the side of
the road, skateboarders lying on their boards, and thrown stacks of paper in
front of our sensors," Waymo said in its report.

Uber has yet to submit a safety letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration but said it is in
the process of doing so. The company has said its self-driving cars are
equipped
with a suite of sophisticated equipment: a top-mounted LiDAR unit, which relies
on lasers to scan the environment and provide an unobstructed view of the car's
surroundings; and seven cameras, including a front-facing lens observing for
factors such as pedestrians, and side and rear cameras for a more comprehensive
view - in addition to other components.

An Uber spokeswoman did not respond directly to questions about Krafcik's
claims, but said last week: "We believe that technology has the power to make
transportation safer than ever before and recognize our responsibility to
contribute to safety in our communities. So as we develop self-driving
technology, safety is our primary concern every step of the way. We're
heartbroken by what happened this week, and our cars remain grounded. We
continue to assist investigators in any way we can."

On Saturday's panel in Las Vegas, Krafcik said he would not speculate on what
went wrong in the Uber crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is among
the agencies investigating the wreck.

"For those of us at Waymo, it was a very sad day," Krafcik said. "Because that
was an accident that was in
a car that had technology representing the self-driving space. And for those of
us at Waymo it is that mission of safety and avoiding accidents just like that
one that really brings us all together as a company. It struck us in a really
major way."

Follow-Ups:
- [msb-alumni] Re: Our cars would have avoided fatal hit, says Waymo CEO
  - From: Fred Wurtzel

[msb-alumni] Our cars would have avoided fatal hit, says Waymo CEO

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