[marcell]

Usually when a human runs a red light, they are aware that it's red. Typically the light is just turning red, and they think they can still make it.

For Uber, their car was probably not aware that the light was red, which is more dangerous.

[benologist]

For ~100 years nobody has been able to make a light red enough for people to consistently stop and wait to proceed.

Uber and all the other companies will permanently solve that problem the one time they figure out how to reliably identify a red light.

[pyre]

People often run red lights because they aren't paying attention too. It still doesn't make headlines on CNN.

[saynay]

A person running a red light is driving just one car at a time. A self-driving car's software is (potentially) driving many cars.

I do not think "a self-driving car runs a red light" is analogous to "a person runs a red light". A closer analogy is to "a distinct class of people who run red lights".

I do agree that the media response is overblown, however I do not think it is without some merit.

[benologist]

"A person" discounts the millions of other persons individually doing it around the world - orders of magnitude more than driverless cars could possibly achieve this decade. Their combined effort, while not just running red lights, kills an estimated 1.25 million people a year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

[woofyman]

Humans who run red lights don't have PR firms proclaiming they're disrupting driving and changing the world. That stance sets you up for bad press when your technology fails.