Vegas Introduces First Ever Self-Driving Shuttle Bus, Which Immediately Crashes During Its Maiden Voyage
Source - A self-driving shuttle bus in Las Vegas was involved in a crash on its first day of service. The vehicle – carrying “several” passengers – was hit by a lorry driving at slow speed. Nobody was injured in the incident which city officials say was the fault of the human driver of the lorry. The man was subsequently given a ticket by police.
The shuttle is the first of its kind to be used on public roads in the US.
A spokesman for the City of Las Vegas told the BBC the crash was a “fender bender” – a minor collision – and that the shuttle would likely be back out on the road on Thursday after some routine diagnostics tests.
“A delivery truck was coming out of an alley,” public information officer Jace Radke said.
“The shuttle did what it was supposed to do and stopped. Unfortunately the human element, the driver of the truck, didn’t stop.”Self-driving technology has been involved in crashes before, but almost all reported incidents have been due to human error.
Vegas City Officials have been hyping this up for months. Talking about how it’s going reduce traffic and increase tourism and it crashes DAY ONE. What a letdown. To be fair, it wasn’t at fault but the point remains. You can’t replace human drivers unless you replace them all at once. They drive too different to share the road. A human would never, in a million years sit there and wait to get hit. Which according to police is exactly what the shuttle did. It didn’t reverse or move out of the way, it just stopped. Which is terrifying. It’s a miracle it didn’t explode considering it was packed with oxygen wielding, Virginia Slim smoking grandmothers. I imagine it looked like the scene in Austin Powers with the steamroller.
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Knowing you’re about to be in a car crash is one of the most the most helpless feelings in the world. Especially when there’s nothing you can do about it.
Despite all the horror stories, I actually like riding the bus. It’s much better than the subway. The people are older, friendlier, less threatening. Not to mention the drivers are like something straight out of the 50’s. You trust them. Sure, there’s the occasional bad apple but you’ll get that anywhere. For the most part they’re good, hard working, slightly unstable people. And it would be a shame to see them replaced by lines of code.