Decades ago I accidentally ran over a cat while driving fairly slow on a residential street. It dashed out between parked cars and I barely saw it at all. I'm guessing sensor-laden driverless cars are actually going to turn out to be better at avoiding those and other kinds of accidents than human drivers.
I remember vividly a childhood experience when a car I was in ran over a dog -- it ran towards the side of the car and went under the rear wheels of the car. I'm not sure there's any reaction time (human or otherwise) that would have prevented that from happening.
Yep, I think it’s blatantly obvious that autonomous cars of some flavor will eclipse human ability sometime this century.
The interesting point will be when insurance companies reduce your rate if your car doesn’t have a steering wheel (or, equivalently, charge a “driving manually” fee). It might be obscured if car companies take on the risk themselves, but at some point people will start to notice that driving manually costs more.
As a Mission local, I loved routinely seeing KitKat while strolling down 16th. He was friendly and made everyone’s day a little brighter. Perhaps other SF residents on HN feel the same.
Decades ago I accidentally ran over a cat while driving fairly slow on a residential street. It dashed out between parked cars and I barely saw it at all. I'm guessing sensor-laden driverless cars are actually going to turn out to be better at avoiding those and other kinds of accidents than human drivers.
I remember vividly a childhood experience when a car I was in ran over a dog -- it ran towards the side of the car and went under the rear wheels of the car. I'm not sure there's any reaction time (human or otherwise) that would have prevented that from happening.
I almost hit an inebriated homeless person when they fell out of a bush into the road. There are scenarios where the only "safe" speed is 0 mph.
I saw a duck kill itself by flying head first into a parked truck at maximum speed while being chased by some other bird.
So ever 0 isn't "safe", lol
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Yep, I think it’s blatantly obvious that autonomous cars of some flavor will eclipse human ability sometime this century.
The interesting point will be when insurance companies reduce your rate if your car doesn’t have a steering wheel (or, equivalently, charge a “driving manually” fee). It might be obscured if car companies take on the risk themselves, but at some point people will start to notice that driving manually costs more.
Hmm. According to Indiana University, 5.4 million cats are killed by cars every year. https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/2022/11/12/the-perils-of-outdoor-c... Normally none of these make national news.
Each story is probably a sad one, but hmm, an Instagram post about one of these being published on Hacker News because it involved a Waymo? Wow!
As a Mission local, I loved routinely seeing KitKat while strolling down 16th. He was friendly and made everyone’s day a little brighter. Perhaps other SF residents on HN feel the same.
It's sad.
But if this is the worst that can be said about Waymo then that gives me a lot of confidence in their general driving abilities.
News article now published: https://sfstandard.com/2025/10/28/waymo-kills-cat-san-franci...