… might not be ready for Prime Time.
It seems to me that the auto manufacturers aren’t following or bypassing the IEEE and SAE autonomous standards. I’m not sure they are mandated to - but they surely should be.
I fully expect that the idea of “self-driving” cars will go down in history as a major boondoggle and waste of vast amounts of money. I do not believe that computers and sensors will ever be a substitute for good old-fashioned human common sense and experience.
As in any new product development there are two stages to V&V. Design verification attempts to ensure the product meets all of the design goals within the ability to test them. Then they move to validation which requires real world operation. All the verification in the world cannot replace actual real-world testing and things are bound to crop up. The idea is to minimize the possibility before you get to that stage and provide backup in case there is a fault- which they do with the human ride-along. Reading the article, I didn’t see anything I wouldn’t expect to have occur at this stage of development.
I have always maintained, in every software program there is a bug waiting to be found.
Regarding the “hard stops” maybe the programmers built in a smidgeon of road rage and brake checking for tailgaters?? 
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I think I heard a news report on the radio about this same thing today. Besides being run into from behind when SD car hit the brakes unexpectedly, surprising motorists, and failing to proceed entirely, blocking the road, one of the accidents cited involved a bicyclist. I expect the first two problems are solvable, but bicyclists in the road, kids darting out from behind a parked car to retrieve a ball, babies crawling in the road, those are tougher problems.
The manufacturer’s philosophy it appears isn’t that their cars have to be 100% safe, accidents are still allowed, just be safer on average compared w/ human-driven cars.
And your expert experience in this is???
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They already are. This is just the next step.
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Me thinks Human Common Sense is a Myth .
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They never will be 100% safe. Just getting the drunk or high drivers off the road will save THOUSANDS of lives each year.
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It exists, just more rare than we would like or expect.
… or, perhaps it would be more accurate to state that “human common sense” is a very good example of an oxymoron.
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Three rear end collisions in 700,000 miles seems like a good record to me.
I wonder what is going to happen during the first major snowstorm when the sensors get covered with snow, slush and ice. will they come to a dead stop and block traffic?
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The plows can easily mitigate that little problem,
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There haas been a lot of testing of self driving tractor trailers. All in southern states. As far as I know, there are not even any plans for ice and snow testing.
There is not much financial incentive for self driving autos except for taxis, but the incentive for over the road tractor trailers jis huge.
Both of these are recommended industry practice. If they were mandated by the DOT, they would be an FMVSS regulation.
I agree the IEEE and SAE recommendations need to be made mandatory, but FMVSS is notoriously slow and regs tend to be written by SAE sub committees and handed to the fed for adoption.
As you’ve correctly pointed out many times… it is an evolving technology.
I think there is a financial incentive. For those that can’t or don’t want to drive, it makes sense. Sure they can take a taxi but personal ownership is important to people as well as not wanting to ride in a robo-taxi that some inconsiderate slob has soiled.
Let’s wait until that is worked out. That is something they are still working on. You’re judging a technology that’s NOT ready for prime time yet. Maybe you should read about the technology first…comment later.
I personally think that autonomous vehicles make a lot of sense in metropolitan areas. I’ve stated before in this forum I have cousins who own a law firm in NYC - most don’t drive or even have a drivers license. With metropolitan areas the streets can be digitally mapped out which makes it a lot easier for autonomous vehicles.
No vehicle has met the IEEE or SAE level 5 standards. At best they’re at level 3.
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I did not say there was no financial advantage, but compared to the over the road truck market, it is not much.
U don’tsee any advantage for city pickup tractor trailers or trucks. You still need someone to make the delivery. Why buy an expensive robot and let the driver not drive?