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Pedestrian Roadkill via AI Driverless Cars, Real Risks in Real World
Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
I remember a few years ago a reporter for a major news publication that was invited to take a ride in one of the prominent so-called self-driving cars (note: we don’t yet have true Level 5 self-driving driverless cars, it’s all either Level 2 and Level 3, requiring the presence of a licensed human driver ready to take over the controls, and a few inching into Level 4 that involves self-driving under strictly defined circumstances known as its Operational Design Domain or ODD).
Eagerly accepting the offer, the reporter chronicled the trip and even recorded video that was then posted with the reported story. In the video, the car approached an intersection and though the car had the right-of-way, it came to a crawl when it spotted a pedestrian that had made a motion at the far edge of the pedestrian walkway as though the person was going to enter into the crosswalk.
The reporter commented on the timid nature of the automation that was driving the car. A human driver would have likely barreled ahead, unless perhaps the human driver was someone just learning to drive. We’ve all seen those neophyte drivers in the marked vehicles that warn you they are a student driver and you should be on the ready for them to hit the brakes or make some other overly…
