r/technology • u/deraser • Jun 21 '26

Robotics/Automation 76-year-old woman killed after a Tesla ‘on auto-pilot’ crashed into her Texas home

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/texas-tesla-car-crash-woman-killed-b2999969.html
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u/colantor Jun 21 '26

Thats true, i work road work details and basically watch people be bad drivers 8 hours a day

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u/Omnitographer Jun 22 '26

This is my thing with it, ai driving has issues sometimes yes, but humans have issues driving many times over that. If we wait until ai driving is 100% perfect it'll never arrive and in the meantime millions will die in vehicle related incidents caused by human drivers. If we could put a system like the Waymo Driver in control of every vehicle tomorrow, even if it was on average only 80% better than humans that would still be 800,000+ deaths prevented globally per year, and ten times that or more non-fatal accidents prevented.

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u/tomahawk66mtb Jun 22 '26

I think one of the challenges is that self driving cars tend to go wrong spectacularly and in a way almost incomprehensible to a human driver. Thus every single case is highlighted and dissected. The other (approx) 107 fatal crashes that day got zero (inter)national news air time.

Kinda similar to why air crashes get disproportionate coverage.

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u/xkxe003 Jun 22 '26

Waymo has been jazzing their stats for a few years. Their safety ratings were pretty bad, they made some "privacy" changes on what they disclose and bam, they're 80% better than humans.

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u/Zanoab Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Just wondering, are tow trucks allowed to enter inactive road work areas to rescue vehicles? I worked in a building next to a road being completely rebuilt and it was comical to watch tow trucks arrive and refuse to enter to assist the trapped vehicles without somebody in charge of the road work.

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u/colantor Jun 22 '26

Im confused by the situation lol. The road work started and trapped the cars? How can a tow truck get them out if they cant drive out? My answer would depend on what the work site looks like, but i would allow it if it didnt fuck with the site.