Google Self-driving cars: Irrational humans versus rational machine

New York Times:

One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn’t get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other human drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward looking for the advantage – paralyzing Googles robot.

Tom Supple, a Google safety driver said, “It is always going to follow the rules, I mean to the point where human drivers who get in the car and are like ‘Why is the car doing that?'” 

_____Six years later in August of 2015 the problem continues as a standoff with a bike rider at an intersection demonstrates _____

The Register:

Oxtox [the bike rider] says the Googlemobile “apparently detected my presence … and stayed stationary for several seconds.” He then started his track stand, thinking the car would go through the intersection. “It finally began to proceed, but as it did, I rolled forward an inch while still standing. The car immediately stopped.”

“I continued to stand, it continued to stay stopped. Then as it began to move again, I had to rock the bike to maintain balance. It stopped abruptly.”

This sequence of events continued “for about two full minutes and the car never made it past the middle of the intersection.”

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