'Slow', 'stable' and 'thinking' are rarely used when describing Uber. But a few months ago, a self-driving car from Uber hit a pedestrian, leaving the company with no choice. Can only be careful.
In March of this year, an Uber driverless car was out of control during the test in Tempe, Arizona, causing the death of 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. After the accident, the FBI intervened in the investigation, and then Uber was All autonomous vehicles were taken off the public road, all car operators in Pittsburgh and San Francisco were informed to stop and the autopilot business in Arizona was closed. Four months later, the Uber self-driving car finally "re-visited the day" and started the road again. Test. This test Uber will first manually drive the Volvo xc90 in Pittsburgh and draw a street map.
Inconsistent 'return'
In recent weeks, Uber has been preparing for a comeback. This time Uber has streamlined the test team and is more cautious in many details. The head of Uber's senior technical department issued a message on Tuesday, 'Although autonomous cars will be again Appear on public streets, but for data collection and map updates, the new brand 'Task Experts' will drive them manually.'
It is reported that Uber has made some improvements to the vehicle. It is equipped with new ringtones and whistles, as well as an active driver monitoring system, which is convenient for the driver to control the vehicle in real time. This includes a camera for the driver, if the driver is detected The behavior, it will give an audible warning. About the supplier of the system, Uber has not revealed too much, and it is kept secret.
The Uber restarted the driverless project, which attracted a lot of attention, especially in the former Pittsburgh, USA. A spokesperson for Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said in an email that Uber should report their plans regularly to them. Appreciation for restarting operations by manual driving and advised him to be extra cautious on the streets of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh City Council will continue to work with the company to develop safety measures.
Uber restarts emergency braking system
In addition to monitoring the road environment, some advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving systems have begun to monitor the driver's behavior. For example, Cadillac uses an infrared camera to track the driver's eye movements. Tesla also began to consider more rigorous monitoring of the driver to improve. Its automatic driving system.
To ensure that this fatal accident in Arizona does not happen again, Uber is also installing a driver monitoring system on the vehicle and signaling the driver. In addition to monitoring the driver, Uber's other major change is in its automatic In the car fleet, the Volvo factory's automatic emergency braking and collision avoidance settings were re-enabled. In fact, on the day of the accident, the built-in radar detected the victim six seconds ago and judged that it needed to brake, but because of the time The system was banned and eventually led to this tragedy. The person concerned judged that if Volvo's assisted driving system was active during the accident, Herzberg would probably still be alive.
In addition, in order to ensure that the road is safe, the Uber self-driving car has also increased the number of on-board personnel. It was originally equipped with only one safety driver. There will now be two task experts. Uber insiders said: 'One is responsible for monitoring the vehicle. Running, another is responsible for recording major events. These experts will receive Uber's latest 'strict' training programs, including defensive driving techniques and 'improved test tracking situational awareness training'. Uber also modifies the touch screen through the central console To reduce interference in the cabin. '
The focus is on simulation
Regarding why manual driving is used instead of re-launching the autopilot system. Uber explained: 'Manual driving allows us to see in real time the different scenes our autopilot encounters on the road. Then, We recreated these scenarios in the virtual world and test tracks to improve overall system performance under similar conditions. ' However, Uber did not specify which environment the simulator can simulate.
According to foreign media reports, the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating a fatal car accident in Arizona. The agency released a preliminary report in May this year and concluded that Uber's self-driving car failed at the critical moment before the accident. Brake. The agency will issue a final report early next year, in which there will be detailed accident analysis and division of responsibilities.