Throwing more fuel on the Uber autonomous car dumpster fire

The New York Times reported Uber's self-driving vehicles were struggling before the tragic crash. They were having trouble driving through construction zones and next to big rigs, plus human drivers had to intervene more often than in competing autonomous car projects.

Waymo said its cars went an average of nearly 5,000 miles before human drivers had to intervene. As of March, Uber was struggling to meet its target of 13 miles per intervention, yet Uber's drivers were asked to go solo although they had previously worked in pairs.

Uber developed a app for an iPad mounted in the vehicle's center console for drivers to use to alert engineers about problems. The app could be used anytime in autonomous mode. Often, drivers would make notes while stopped at traffic lights or stop signs, but many would do so without shifting the car out of autonomous mode.

Waymo's solution was different. They added an audio button to the steering wheel so the drivers could leave a voice note when they took cars out of autonomous mode.


Complete article here:
http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwpISlwjo

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Yeah, they hired Anthony Lewandowski, who had headed Google's self driving car project, and he had stolen 100's of GB of proprietary data from Google. There was a lawsuit, which I believe was settled.

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Lyft drivers tend to be nicer people overall, insofar as I've used them, which isn't much.

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