The technology to end traffic deaths exists. Why aren’t we using it?

Submitted ⁨⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨destructdisc@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.fastcompany.com/91330938/the-technology-to-end-traffic-deaths-exists-why-arent-we-using-it-technology-and-traffic-deaths

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Arkhive@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
“Let’s invent metal boxes with wheels that follow lines one the ground automatically to get you places.”

“Oh, you mean like trains.”

“Ew, no. They’re nothing like trains, these are ‘self driving cars’. They’re fool proof!”

tesla hits someone in a dense fog because it doesn’t have lidar

Queue surprised pikachu.

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- 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Wait. Those things rely on visual sensors only?? That moronic! I mean, more so that I originally though. Please tell me that they have them, but this particular one was malfunctioning.
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨35⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    Very early on, Tesla used lidar in addition to optical sensors. However, they only use optical sensors today and have for a while. Like many of the poor decisions at that company, the change to optical-only was made at Musk’s demand.
    
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Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
There is an obvious answer here that both the author and the people in this thread are ignoring.

Driving as a transportation method is a high risk/cost high flexibility/comfort solution.

Pretty much everyone who has accepted driving as their transportation method understands that it’s not the safest ways, so a lot of drivers are always willing to take a little bit more risk to save money or something like that.

A better question is, why are we so okay with accepting such high risks for transportation. The human mind is terrible at risk assessment so I think it’s just culture that car accidents are a part of life.

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- billiam0202@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Americans are real good at ignoring issues that don’t affect them personally.
  
  Oh I won’t wreck my car, I’m a “good driver”!
  
  I can’t catch Covid because it’s not real!
  
  School shootings are just false flags the government uses to pass gun control laws!
  
  Donald Trump only wants to remove the dangerous immigrants, not the ones I hire for my business!
  
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- atmorous@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  We need more people part of the FuckCars, Walk, Bike, & Public Transit online cultures
  
  Need more outreach to get things happening even more. Also my comment on this post would solve a lot of things by not having to redo outreaching to people
  
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  - AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    Even better, the equivalent irl cultures. Most cities have groups advocating for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure and better public transit.
    
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Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’m all for better safety features but perhaps an easier, cheaper, and more likely to succeed option to use is city planning/enforcement and change of current regulations. For instance, closing the loophole that lets car manufacturers ignore safety and emissions rules for “light truck” classified cars, which at this point is most of the oversized SUVs and pickups.

Alternatively having safer options for pedestrians and cyclists would help too, like having separated bike roads, and pushing highways and stroads out of residential areas and reclaiming city space for pedestrians. Public transit investment also helps reduce the number of drivers, which helps traffic and safety too.

I don’t hate the idea of these extra AI tools like emergency braking being required or at least encouraged with stuff like safety ratings, but I think it’s going to be very hard to get that implemented anytime soon considering you’d be fighting consumer interest(higher cost cars) and companies who don’t want to have to make or license AI tools.

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- Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  I don’t hate the idea of these extra AI tools
  
  Those are not AI.
  
  considering you’d be fighting consumer interest(higher cost cars) and companies who don’t want to have to make or license AI tools.
  
  Openpilot is FOSS. Any OEM could use it without even asking permission.
  
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- shiroininja@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The Problem is, the whole pedestrian and cyclist centric society only works of we also restructure the entire economic system to where workers have an extra hour and a half to two hours of free time outside of work. Because we already don’t have enough time for our families and children.
  
  Like me for instance. I have like 3 waking hours to spend with my child (once you minus, cooking, cleaning, adulting) if I’m lucky each day. Driving to work is a highway exit away on the other side of town. With a car, that’s 6 minutes each way. On a bike? 40 minutes minimum. Public transit? With transfers, even longer.
  
  And then you have to juggle picking up your child from childcare, etc with is ridiculous without a car. And living closer to your work is a funny idea unless you expect every neighborhood to have offices and warehouses representing every industry. I mean it sounds great for the upper middle class with shorter office jobs and the finances for that kind of lifestyle, but that’s just not feasible for real working class Americans in the economic system as it is currently
  
  It’s for singles who can tralala themselves around on a bike or have a leisurely stroll to wherever they’re going and who don’t really cook or anything themselves.
  
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- AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  While I agree in concept, redesigning and rebuilding society to be less car centric would NOT be fast or easy.
  
  It’s better in so many ways and I wish more Americans could experience the freedom and convenience of walkable and transit oriented areas to understand how unpleasant their cars really are. But if even if we seriously pursued that, it would be many decades, probably more like a century. In the meantime electric vehicles are much better than what we use now
  
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ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Public transportation or bust

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who@feddit.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The technologies mentioned in the article:

lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking (AEB), and blind-spot detection

AI-powered traffic systems

On-demand breathalyzers, smartphone saliva tests, and eye-tracking sensors

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- JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world ⁨39⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  All of those things are garbage and don’t work, they just drive you nuts until you turn them off.
  
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- WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  with every section it just became worse
  
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Quazatron@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Trains? We’ve been using those for over a century now.

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- 0x0@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  They don’t help with last mile.
  
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  - sbv@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Have you considered more trains?
    
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  - Evkob@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    More trains, trams, bicycle and/or e-scooter rentals, walking (a mile is what, 20 minutes walk at most?)
    
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  - Quazatron@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    There are a lot of other neat inventions that deal with that.
    
    The problem with traffic is caused by lack of investment in public transportation. Have a look at how they solved it in Paris.
    
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  - 52fighters@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The last mile can be 25 mph. That alone will eliminate 99% of traffic deaths, especially if the roads are designed to make it uncomfortable to go above 25 mph.
    
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atmorous@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The biggest solution to all of our problems is having Revolt, & Matrix community servers setup where people can join based on their State, & also other community servers for their Country. With goal of having a single spot to get things done collectively, inform each other about all kinds of good and bad things, discuss topics, make stuff happen for better, collaborate on projects, have fun together, & much more

I’m one of a couple hundred people working on it but need more people on board to do it.

We The People means Unity in every sense of the word in person and online to get things done together by doing

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underline960@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
What technology?

Safety features like lane-keep assist, automatic emergency braking (AEB), and blind-spot detection…

… AI-powered traffic systems that predict and prevent accidents.](bellevuewa.gov/city-government/…/vision-zero)…

Impaired driving is also solvable. On-demand breathalyzers, smartphone saliva tests, and eye-tracking sensors… Uber is already testing real-time driver sobriety verification…

Why aren’t we using it?

The article doesn’t have an answer.

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- JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world ⁨38⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  Because its garbage :
  
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=agi-iFm2q6I
  
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- postmateDumbass@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Because of how it will go when everyone assumes the car they are trying to merge with will auto brake if they go for it.
  
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- catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  It does. It says it’s optional, only in new cars, and it costs extra money, which anyone with half a brain could have told you.
  
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aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The technologies to end a lot of problems exist. We aren’t using them because the oligarchs think it’s better this way.

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- socsa@piefed.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This is definitely a great example of individuals being obstinate and entitled. Just mention you support speed cameras on all roads and find out how many of your friends think speeding is a good given human rights.
  
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  - nickhammes@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Speed cameras are a privacy issue that doesn’t solve the problem of speeding. People are most comfortable driving the speed the road is designed for, and if that speed is too high, the solution is to modify the road for a safer speed. The speeders in your example are right here, for the wrong reason; speed cameras should be rare if they’re allowed to exist at all. They have, at most, a short term benefit, and broad public surveillance is a very serious issue they contribute to.
    
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  - queermunist@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    It’s my understanding that speed cameras don’t actually make roads safer, they just generate revenue for the city.
    
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SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Autonomous vehicles. They don’t get high, they don’t get distracted, and if they’re made by literally anyone except for Tesla, they have superhuman vision and not only don’t have blind spots, they can also see in the dark and see through steam and fog.

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- the_q@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This will only ever work if all vehicles were autonomous. Any human interaction introduces unpredictable behavior into an otherwise “perfect” system.
  
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  - neatchee@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    This is misleading and dangerous rhetoric.
    
    Autonomous vehicles - actual autonomous ones, not Tesla bullshit marketing “self-driving” - are already significantly safer than human drivers. Yes, they are limited to certain conditions (they don’t handle inclement weather very well yet) but the point is that they are already improving safety over human drivers.
    
    Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
    
    Additionally, once autonomous vehicles become the standard, you will see a dramatic shift in how the insurance industry operates.
    
    Think about it: if I’m not the one driving, why would I be the one taking on liability? I wouldn’t. The manufacturer would. Suddenly, the insurance industry would be targeting vehicle/software producers instead of individuals. And anyone who chooses to drive themselves anyway? They would almost always be liable by default. Premiums for drivers would skyrocket and this would be a huge disincentive to getting behind the wheel in the first place.
    
    Don’t. Let. The. Perfect. Be. The. Enemy. Of. The. Good.
    
    We all lose out. And it costs lives.
    
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  - SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The returns grow exponentially, yes. Even removing some of the bad (i.e., human) drivers is clearly better than *none."
    
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- themurphy@lemmy.ml ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  If I could cut my work time by my driving time, because I would be able to work from the car, it would be an absolute game changer for my family life.
  
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Goretantath@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Because people want to drive theur cars instead if let a system handle everything perfectly. Theres no way to have safe driving with people behind the wheel.

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Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
One of the many things I like about Subaru is that they seem to move useful features from optional to standard, once they’ve had a chance to prove themselves. I bought an Outback in 2016 and paid extra for the EyeSight safety system. Two years later that car was destroyed in an accident (I was T-boned and rolled over twice, without anyone being hurt). I bought another Outback to replace it, but by that time the EyeSight was a standard feature. Subaru now includes EyeSight on all their cars because it saves lives.

They had done similar things with other safety features. Four-wheel disc brakes, anti-lock braking, and all-wheel drive became standard on Sabarus relatively early.

It is also worth noting that the more intrusive EyeSight features, like lane assist, are easy to turn off. There’s a button on the steering wheel for that one. Even if you turn it off, the car will still warn you if you start to cross lanes without using your turn signals, but it will not adjust for you.

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- jol@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Meanline Tesla: were removing radar and make the car blind when it rains to cut costs.
  
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Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
No. It doesn’t.

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dhork@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The solution is to raise better humans who make better choices, not to use technology to prevent our bad choices from being worse.

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Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Autonomous driving. As long as people are behind the wheel deaths will be high. Autonomous driving is not perfection, but it will be safer by an order of magnitude. It will come to scale decades later than it should due to a human sense of loss of control causing resistance to change at the cost of many thousands of lives.

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Repelle@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
My cars are old and don’t have any of this, and my one experience in a rental car with lane keeping assist was that it pushed me towards a highway barrier in construction where the original lane lines weren’t in use. Terrifying.

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spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Impaired driving is also solvable. On-demand breathalyzers, smartphone saliva tests, and eye-tracking sensors are all tools that already exist to stop drunk and high drivers before they even start the ignition. Uber is already testing real-time driver sobriety verification. Why aren’t carmakers racing to put similar tech in every new vehicle?

There’s no fucking way people will buy those cars is why. I will never buy a car that required a saliva test or blowing into a tube before starting. IMO any car that includes that requirement would be a flop before it even hit the showroom floors.

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