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Comment by nicholas73 | Hacker News Reader

I decided to test a Google self driving car as it crossed the intersection by accelerating into its broadside - no reaction at all. Well, got a reaction from the humans inside.

I recently narrowly avoided getting killed by a broadside collision by braking just in time. If I were further I would have sped up out of the way. Would a probabilistic approach handle this? Maybe they need to compile a list of special edge cases.

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You can't compile a list of edge cases for this kind of thing, because it is impossible to know the comprehensive list of all the situations the car won't handle correctly.

In the end, you need a learning technology that can properly adapt to any possible situation and give a decent response. Maybe it can be done, but we certainly aren't there yet and I'm skeptical as to the the tractability of the last bit of the problem.

I think they're currently concerned with making sure the vehicle drives safely. Many humans apply evasive maneuvers, only to end up killing someone else or hurting themselves in other ways.

All this shows is that the Google car was driving well, and you weren't. Though I'm sure as the tech progresses they'll look into this sort of thing, and will implement what makes sense.

Did you hit the car? Would the car have hit someone else if it accelerated or braked? Perhaps the AI made the right decision.

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