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Renault chief exec takes swipe at cyclists after calling them ‘one of the biggest problems’ for driverless carsRenault driverless car (image taken from YouTube video).jpg

Renault chief exec takes swipe at cyclists after calling them ‘one of the biggest problems’ for driverless cars

“They don’t respect any rules usually”
by Alex Bowden
Wed, Jan 20, 2016 17:01
39

Renault's chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, says the first semi-autonomous vehicles will appear this year with a fully autonomous car expected to be on the market by 2020. However, he also said that cyclists were proving one of the biggest stumbling blocks when it came to refining the new technology.

"One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,” said Ghosn.

He told CNBC that cyclists ‘confuse’ driverless cars. “From time-to-time they behave like pedestrians and from time-to-time they behave like cars.”

In August, a cyclist doing a trackstand paralysed a Google self-driving car as it struggled to judge whether the rider was in motion or not. If in doubt, the car remains stationary, leading to a bizarre standoff between the two.

Google patent reveals how driverless cars recognise hand signals

Jason Torrance, policy director at Sustrans, reminded Ghosn that it was Renault’s responsibility to develop a product fit for use.

"Advocates of driverless cars often forget that people live next to roads and use them regularly, so safety must be prioritised, especially when normal unpredictable and legal human behaviour comes into contact with driverless machines."

One of the main issues with driverless technology thus far has been the degree of caution which is necessarily built into the software – the incident involving the cyclist above being a case in point.

Volvo to accept full responsibility for collisions caused by its driverless cars

A recent study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute concluded that accident rates are twice as high for driverless cars as for regular cars, but the majority of incidents involve the driverless car being hit from behind in a slow-speed crash by a human driver unaccustomed to a vehicle being driven so cautiously.

There has even been a case of one of Google's cars being pulled over for driving too slowly – moving at 24mph in a busy 35mph zone, traffic was backing up behind.

Dmitri Dolgov, principal engineer of Google’s driverless cars project says the firm is now looking to make its cars more ‘aggressive’ while still operating according to traffic laws. He argues that this is necessary so that they can fit into traffic more naturally.

via Bikebiz

driverless cars
Renault
Carlos Ghosn
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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39 comments

Avatar
Must be Mad | 8 years ago
12 likes

I suspect the headline  quote of "One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,” might have been cherry-picked and taken out of context.

Ghosn really just seems to be talking about how difficult it is to program a computer to track
bicycles and understand what they are doing -  and to me that is a completely reasonable point. Its certinally a massively difficult technical task, and one which could cost the company dear if they get it wrong. 

Avatar
a1white replied to Must be Mad | 8 years ago
2 likes

Must be Mad wrote:

I suspect the headline  quote of "One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,” might have been cherry-picked and taken out of context.

Ghosn really just seems to be talking about how difficult it is to program a computer to track
bicycles and understand what they are doing -  and to me that is a completely reasonable point. Its certinally a massively difficult technical task, and one which could cost the company dear if they get it wrong. 

 

Agreed. Clickbait headline writing.

Avatar
PhilRuss replied to Must be Mad | 8 years ago
2 likes

Must be Mad wrote:

I suspect the headline  quote of "One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,” might have been cherry-picked and taken out of context.

Ghosn really just seems to be talking about how difficult it is to program a computer to track
bicycles  Its certinally a massively difficult technical task, and one which could cost the company dear if they get it wrong.***

  ***Methinks it'll also cost cyclists dear, if the driverless boffins get it wrong...."dear" as in injured or dead. And do pedestrians behave predictably?  What we need is more car-less drivers, not driverless cars. 

Avatar
Chuck replied to PhilRuss | 8 years ago
1 like

PhilRuss wrote:

***Methinks it'll also cost cyclists dear, if the driverless boffins get it wrong...."dear" as in injured or dead. And do pedestrians behave predictably?  What we need is more car-less drivers, not driverless cars. 

It's costing cyclists and lots of other people dear right now  when people get it wrong, which they do pretty frequently.  Driverless cars might not be perfect, but they can sure be a big improvement. 

With anything new people are quick to go "Yes, but... " and point out anywhere it falls short, but they often don't objectively apply the same standards to whatever they have now.

danthomascyclist wrote:

I don't think his remarks were callous - just poorly worded. What he probably meant was "bicycles don't behave like motorised vehicles because they're more agile and vulnerable which results in actions that are difficult to predict and monitor"

Agreed, but even if he meant it in the more cyclist-baiting sense it's hard to disagree with him IME. Certainly round Birmingham the vast majority people on bikes seem to do exactly as they please. 

Avatar
danthomascyclist | 8 years ago
15 likes

I don't think his remarks were callous - just poorly worded. What he probably meant was "bicycles don't behave like motorised vehicles because they're more agile and vulnerable which results in actions that are difficult to predict and monitor"

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to danthomascyclist | 8 years ago
2 likes

danthomascyclist wrote:

I don't think his remarks were callous - just poorly worded. What he probably meant was "bicycles don't behave like motorised vehicles because they're more agile and vulnerable which results in actions that are difficult to predict and monitor"

think what he could have said is 'we don't understand how cyclists behave' it could well be a translation issue, rather than an implication that cyclists are all lawless.

Avatar
thx1138 | 8 years ago
11 likes

Quote:

"One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,”

....and drivers do, do they Carlos?

Avatar
mancrider replied to thx1138 | 8 years ago
3 likes

thx1138 wrote:

Quote:

"One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,”

....and drivers do, do they Carlos?

... well Driverless cars thankfully illiminate the driver. I just hope Renault arnt suggesting bicycles become riderless!! 3

Avatar
Gus T replied to thx1138 | 8 years ago
4 likes

thx1138 wrote:

Quote:

"One of the biggest problems is people with bicycles, because they don’t respect any rules usually,”

....and drivers do, do they Carlos?

And Renault do, do they Carlos, how about massive illegal subsidies from the French government that had to be repaid, how about the campaign against the EU directive on safer lorries organised by Renault & it's subsiduaries.

There fixed it for you.

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