[mslev]

I'm not sure how closely we should analyze this footage. Its relatively low-quality dashcam footage, and I highly doubt its representative of what the car "sees" and what a human would see in similar conditions.

That being said, Uber's LIDAR should've seen the woman in the road, right? Does the range not go beyond the lane ahead?

[TYPE_FASTER]

Published vs. real-world LIDAR ranges are radically different. Even if the LIDAR sensor is looking 360deg around the car, the Uber software may only be looking at a small cone in front of the car.

The challenge is: what do you do when something is moving toward the vehicle's path? You could track every object in front of the car, but since people walk toward the road, then stop, you can't just apply full brakes every time something is moving toward the road.

It's really, really hard to get this right: we humans can look at people standing next to a road, and, based on movement and body language, predict whether pedestrians will walk into a road.

And since there will be cases where pedestrians don't look and walk in front of a vehicle going 40mph, autonomous technology will be limited by the physics of stopping a vehicle with full brake applied.

It's impossible to figure out what the Uber vehicle should have, or could have, done autonomously without looking at the code, and all the data.

[TYPE_FASTER]

Also challenging: looking ahead around the corner. You have to be able to predict somewhat where the vehicle is going, so you have to have an accurate map of the road, and know accurately where you are.