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AI Self-Driving Cars Dealing With Jaywalkers
AI Self-Driving Cars Dealing With Jaywalkers
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About this episode
Exploring the complexities of jaywalking in urban environments, this episode delves into the challenges self-driving cars face when encountering pedestrians who disregard traffic rules. Dr. Lance Elliott shares personal anecdotes from New York City, highlighting how jaywalking behaviors vary with time, weather, and social dynamics. The discussion emphasizes the need for AI in self-driving cars to adapt to unpredictable human actions, moving beyond simple object detection to a nuanced understanding of pedestrian behavior. The episode also touches on legal responsibilities and innovative approaches to managing jaywalking in cities.
Dr. Eliot explains how AI self-driving cars deal with jaywalking and jaywalkers. See his Forbes column for further info: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/
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"Now, what does this have to do with AI, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars?"
Artificial intelligence is a type of computer technology that allows machines to think and learn like humans. It's important for things like self-driving cars to help them make decisions on the road.
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn. In the context of self-driving cars, AI is crucial for processing data from sensors and making real-time driving decisions.
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self-driving cars
"Now, what does this have to do with AI, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars? At the Cybernetic AI Self-Driving Car Institute, we're developing AI software for self-driving cars."
Self-driving cars are vehicles that can drive themselves without needing a person to control them. They use special technology to see and understand the road and traffic around them.
Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous vehicles, are equipped with technology that allows them to navigate and drive without human intervention. They use a combination of sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence to understand their surroundings and make driving decisions.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Lance Elliott, and welcome to my podcast series about self-driving cars.
In this episode, I'll be discussing the topic of jaywalking and self-driving cars.
If you've become interested in more about self-driving cars, please see my website, www.ai-self-driving-cars.guru,
for further information.
Okay, let's get started.
I remember one of the first times that I visited New York City and made the mistake of renting
a car to get around that famous metropolis.
I'd figured that driving a car around the avenues and streets would give me a solid
sense of how the city that never sleeps was laid out and where the most notable restaurants,
bars, and shops could be found.
Turns out that I mainly discovered how much New Yorkers seemed to delight in jaywalking.
It was as though there weren't any rules against jaywalking at all.
You might also think that you would dart rather than kind of meander across the street, but
these fearless jaywalkers tended to take their time.
In some cities, the jaywalker does not make eye contact with the car driver, seemingly
acting as though car drivers don't even exist.
My experience in New York was that the jaywalkers loved to give the car drivers a stare down.
I admit that after I turned in the rental car and became more of a traditional pedestrian
on my visits in New York City, I adopted the jaywalking habit there.
One colleague even assisted to me that it was actually more dangerous to cross at a
marked crosswalk, at least in New York City, than it was to jaywalk.
I doubt that he had any actual statistics to back up the claim, but I went with it.
During my numerous stays in New York City I noticed, for example, that the time of
day seemed to make a difference in terms of the volume and nature of the jaywalking.
Mornings when pedestrians were trying to get to work often stoked a lot of jaywalking,
perhaps a try and get to work promptly, and minimize the time required to get to
your office.
There was also the amount of traffic that played a role in the jaywalking.
If a street had intermittent traffic, and if the cars that use a street considered a
kind of a race track to quickly make some progress through the slew of blocks of
New York City, the jaywalker had to be a bit more nimble and aware.
The weather also played a part in the jaywalking ritual.
Rainy days meant that the jaywalkers had an even greater incentive to jaywalk.
Some of the jaywalkers acted as though they had a special invisible shield that
would protect them from the cars.
They would walk across the street whenever they darned wish to do so.
In my estimation, there seemed to be a sizable chunk of drivers that were not
attuned to the presence of these jaywalkers.
This kind of makes sense since the drivers were having to contend with bigger
game, such as larger trucks trying to make deliveries, and rapidly
exiting and entering unexpectedly into the street and avenues.
Furthermore, many of the car drivers seemed to consider that a jaywalker
did jaywalking at their own risk.
In essence, the car driver did not have to pay particular attention to
the jaywalkers because, well, the jaywalkers were required to always make
sure to avoid getting hit by a car.
At least that's what they assumed.
Another factor involved sizing up the jaywalker.
How was the jaywalker dressed and what kind of look did they have?
If a driver saw a jaywalker that seemed like a seasoned yorker, it suggested
that the jaywalker could take care of themselves and no further driver
attention was probably needed.
When it got somewhat late at night, I observed there would be a segment
of jaywalkers that were a bit intoxicated having visit their preferred
pub for some after-work libation.
This seemed to dampen the wits of these jaywalkers.
In most cases I observed individuals acting as jaywalkers.
This though was not always the case, and there were frequently
situations of multiple jaywalkers proceeding all at once.
There was at times a herd mentality.
If one of the jaywalkers went for it, the others were sure to follow.
The jaywalking instance has got my heart pumping where situations in
which two people were holding hands and opted to rush across the
street together.
As you can imagine, trying to get two people across on a precisely
timed jaywalk is a bit more complex.
If one of the two falters that can defeat the open window in which
you have the opportunity to do the jaywalk, it was surprising at
times to see how much connectedness was retained by the two.
It was as though separating of their hands meant more to them
than the chance of getting hit by a car.
Was it true love that came together in that life-risk move?
Was it concerned that the other one might feel abandoned?
Maybe it was out of deep caring and belief that by sticking
together they could survive anything.
There's another kind of coupling sometimes that would occur
involving a jaywalker that was jaywalking with their dog.
The jaywalking human might be hand carrying the dog, having
lift the dog up and embrace him like you would carry a football.
This made sense that having the dog walk on a leash is going to
be more uncontrollable.
For those that didn't carry their dog, perhaps due to
weight and size of the dog, the leash approach was quite dicey.
This reminds me too of a common refrain that my New York
colleagues would use on me.
They would say that any jaywalkers making their own
decisions if they get hit, well, that's their own doing.
Now I don't buy into that claim per se.
It seems to leave the car drivers out of the equation.
If a car driver hits a jaywalker, it's going to be a great
difficulty for the car driver.
Though, yes, I agree, it's unlikely the car driver would
be killed.
But they could get injured.
Furthermore, suppose the car driver is so anxious to avoid
hitting it wayward jaywalker that the driver rams
into the car.
Now you've got another person enmeshed into this
jaywalking effort.
Here's another angle for you.
What about the children?
I've seen jaywalkers holding the hand of a child or a group
of children and trying to make a jaywalking attempt with them.
I realize some would argue that, of course, the adult needs to
hold the hands of the children, and would accuse me of somehow
suggesting the children should roam freely as jaywalkers.
Let's be serious.
I'm not implying that children should be unescorted by an
adult when jaywalking.
The thing is, the children should probably not be jaywalking
at all.
There are some that have said to me that it would
require walking several added blocks and take another 15
minutes to get to their desired location, such as school.
Well, one has to then consider the return on investment, or
ROI, of walking those extra blocks and using those added 15
minutes, doing so presumably in a safer manner, versus the
risk associated with doing the beeline jaywalking.
Is there an appropriate risk reward that says the added
risk to the child makes the jaywalking act worthwhile?
There's the special twist of the jaywalker that dropped
something while in the act of jaywalking.
I saw a jaywalker that was carrying his coat as he
darted across the street.
The street was slightly wet from leftover rain.
The person slipped while running across the street.
As he regained his balance, he dropped his coat.
At this point, his presumed prior calculated time to get
across the street had been used up.
A car was fast approaching.
Should he go to pick up his coat, which would take a
pressure second or two, and tempt fate with the
oncoming car?
Or should he abandon the coat for the moment and safely
make his way to the sidewalk?
Which is better, a coat that perhaps gets trampled by a
moving car, and which you can get it out of the street
once the car is passed, and maybe get the coat dry
cleaned or fixed up?
Or do you bend over while in the middle of the street and
watch that oncoming car like it's a bull charging it,
you and Pamplona?
I've been so far primarily describing the jaywalkers.
Let's shift our focus a bit more towards the car
drivers and the act of contending with jaywalkers.
In terms of the drivers, there are drivers that
seem to know the jaywalking game pretty well and
play it to the finest detail.
There are other drivers that are driving well distracted.
Maybe they're looking at their phone or doing
something else.
So inadvertently, it can be more menacing for a
jaywalker than those that are actually paying
attention and playing the game.
They're the drivers that are drunk drivers or
otherwise somewhat incapacitate, therefore impaired
while playing this jaywalking game.
There are even what I call the vendetta drivers.
I cannot say for sure that they have a vendetta, but
they certainly seem to drive like they're trying to get
those jaywalkers.
Here's something else that seems to go into the
jaywalking equation.
Does the jaywalker have any kind of encumbrance like
a heavy backpack or maybe carrying a briefcase or
carrying a box?
This tends to slow down the jaywalker, requires the
find a somewhat wider opening in terms of time and space.
Night time jaywalking was somewhat akin to daylight
jaywalking as long as the street was well lit and
everyone was actually sober.
On some New York City streets, though, the
lighting was not so good.
This increased the chances of sour encounters between
jaywalkers and drivers.
The jaywalker at times, though, seemed to think that
the darkness was actually in their favor, hiding their
jaywalking transgression.
You can combine together all these aforementioned
factors and make the jaywalking into a rather
complicated game of human versus human.
Human jaywalkers that have human frailties and can
misjudge when and how to jaywalk, when there are
conditions that can impact this game along with
daylight versus darkness.
Drivers that pay attention, other drivers do not.
Some have a vendetta, some that might be drunk.
Of course, not all countries are necessarily
opposed to jaywalking.
On an international basis, there are some places in
the world that jaywalking is strictly forbidden and
other places that allow it and give no special
heed about it.
Who has the proper right of way, you might ask.
In some countries, both the jaywalker and the
driver are considered equal in terms of right-of-way.
Here's what the California Department of Motor Vehicles
rulebook states about the act of jaywalking.
Every pedestrian, upon a roadway at any point,
other than within a marked crosswalk, or within an
unmarked crosswalk in an intersection, shall yield
the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway
so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.
The provisions of this shall not relieve the driver
of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for
the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.
You'll notice that the jaywalker is supposed to yield
right-of-way to the cars.
Notice further that in spite of that aspect, it does
mean that it does not mean that the driver could
just run over a jaywalker.
The driver must also exercise due care, even if
a jaywalker is doing something they aren't
supposed to be doing.
Now, what does this have to do with AI,
artificial intelligence, self-driving cars?
At the Cybernetic AI Self-Driving Car Institute,
we're developing AI software for self-driving cars.
One crucial aspect involves the AI being able
to contend with jaywalkers.
Allow me to elaborate.
I'd like to first clarify and introduce a notion
that there are varying levels of AI self-driving cars.
The top most level is considered level five.
The level five self-driving car is one that's being driven
by the AI and there's no human driver involved.
For self-driving cars less than level five,
there must be a human driver present in the car.
Returning to the topic of jaywalkers,
let's consider the capabilities that an AI
self-driving car should have to contend
with these wayward pedestrians.
I'll tackle right away a comment that I sometimes
get from AI developers.
There are some that say there's no need
for an AI self-driving car to do anything
at all about a jaywalker.
Jaywalkers are acting illegally.
They get what they deserve.
Well, it might seem astonishing to you
that someone would actually think this way.
I quickly point out to such a person
that the DMV code clearly states
that the car driver must exercise a duty of care
even if the jaywalker is doing something
utterly wrong or illegal.
Let's all assume that indeed the AI
of the self-driving car does need to contend
with jaywalkers and that it cannot ignore them.
This moves us then in the next kind of quirk
that some AI developers offer.
There are some AI developers that will concede
the notion of doing something about jaywalkers,
but then argue that a jaywalker is nothing special
and the normal driving aspects
of the AI self-driving car should suffice.
In this case, the AI developer is suggesting
that if the AI self-driving car is already prepared
to cope with objects that might appear in the roadway,
the job of having the AI be prepared
to jaywalkers is already completed.
This implies that a jaywalker is no different
than let's say a tumbleweed.
If the AI is able to detect a tumbleweed
in the roadway, it amounts the same thing
as detecting a human in the roadway.
At least that's the kind of thinking involved.
If I was driving my car and I saw a tumbleweed in the road,
I would likely meant to calculate whether to hit it or not.
I might be willing to hit the tumbleweed
due to the aspect that perhaps there are other cars near me
and if I hit my brake suddenly, I risk getting rear-ended
and maybe I cannot switch lanes
without endangering a car adjacent to me.
Here's an easy question for you, I think.
Namely, do you consider it viable to ram a jaywalker
using the same logic about ramming a tumbleweed?
I dare say you'd be willing to take much greater chances
to avoid hitting that jaywalker
than you would to hit a tumbleweed.
Thus, I claim that if AI system is only detecting objects
and not trying to also figure out
what kind of objects involve,
it's insufficient in terms of what we would all hope
a true AI self-driving car is going to be able to do.
That's why the interplay of the sensory detection
sensory fusion is so vital.
When the AI system is trying to piece together
the sensory data from multiple sensors,
it has an enhanced chance of trying to ferret out
what kind of object is being dealt with.
This also interplays with the virtual world model.
The virtual world model would be tracking the object
over time, which was also then aid in trying
to certain what the object might be.
The AI action planning capability needs to be a student enough
to be able to detect patterns of shapes and movement
that pertain to humans and try to differentiate this
from other kinds of objects.
I purposely chose the tumbleweed example
because it's a tricky one to discern
from the movements of a human.
A jaywalker might make a direct beeline across the street.
Well, a tumbleweed could do the same.
A jaywalker might weave as they cross the street
and of course a tumbleweed might do the same
based on the wind.
You would need to combine together multiple factors
to figure this out.
What is the size and shape of the object?
Does it resemble the size and shape of a human?
Does it move in a seemingly directed fashion
but if so, can it be differentiated
from the possible random movements of an object
like a tumbleweed?
Guessing whether or not the object is a jaywalker
then opens up an entire plethora of other aspects
for the AI to consider.
My stories about jaywalkers provides ample indication
the kinds of acts that a jaywalker might do.
A car driver that's watching the road
would indeed adjust their driving behavior
based on the realization that a jaywalker
is in the road.
You might slow down, you might speed up,
you might honk your horn,
you might do all kinds of actions as a driver.
Likewise, the AI of a true self-driving car
should be do similar kinds of actions.
A true AI self-driving car has to be embodied
with the kinds of driving skills that humans use
and particularly so with regard to contending with jaywalkers.
It is insufficient to simply rely upon
some kind of overarching object detection
and assume that doing so will resolve
how to cope with jaywalkers.
That's not what human drivers seem to do.
The AI system needs to incorporate
the multitude of factors that I previously mentioned
about jaywalkers.
Now some are hoping that the use of machine learning
and deep learning will come to the aid
of trying to cope with jaywalkers.
In some sense, yes, it can be helpful
to use machine learning and deep learning.
I assure you though,
the today's kind of machine learning and deep learning
is not going to be the silver bullet or magic wand.
That provides the jaywalking kind of driving aptitude
needed for a true AI self-driving car.
The jaywalker aspects are far too complex.
It's not the same as merely analyzing an image
to ferret out whether there is a human
in the scene or not.
This has to do with behaviors and rather complex ones.
Most seasoned drivers tend to take jaywalkers in stride,
meaning that we human drivers can detect jaywalkers.
We can anticipate what they might do.
We can adjust our driving aspects accordingly.
And most of the time the dance leads to the jaywalker
getting safely across the street
and the car safely proceeding down the street.
This is nearly an effortless act
by a seasoned human driver.
AI self-driving cars are not yet nearly
as prepared for handling jaywalkers.
The sad incident of the jaywalker that got killed in Arizona
being run down by an Uber self-driving car
is but one example of how limited
today's AI self-driving cars are
in terms of coping with jaywalkers.
Why did the jaywalker cross the road?
The answer to safely get to the other side.
Whether you live in a country
or place that condones jaywalking or shuns it,
in the real world jaywalking exists
and will continue to exist.
Here in Los Angeles,
they've started a new effort to discourage jaywalking.
If a jaywalker is caught jaywalking
and is the first such caught offense,
Los Angeles will give them a bright colored vest
and an LED light for free.
And tell them if they continue to jaywalk,
which they're not supposed to do,
they should at least wear the vest
and hold the LED light up.
And they get no ticket for that jaywalking initially.
You might think this is a rather odd kind of solution
to the problem of jaywalking.
Some think it's a genius,
others think it's a bit ludicrous.
In any case, let's be safe out there.
And the AI for self-driving cars
needs to do its part of that safety mindset.
Well, thanks for listening.
Again, I'm Dr. Lancelot.
I hope that you found today's episode informative.
If you're interested in learning more
about self-driving cars,
please see my website,
www.ai-self-driving-cars.guru
for further information.
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