Whoops! Who could possibly have seen something like this coming?
Highlight from the article
But it feels like everyone in this world—or this country, at least—is being treated as an unpaid beta tester for technologies for which they never asked, and from which someone else stands to make a ton of money. The “move fast, break things” approach of tech bros is obnoxious enough when it comes to software, but it’s irresponsible and potentially deadly when it comes to things like cars and delivery robots.
Example #42069 of why relying on vision alone for navigation is a terrible idea. At these speeds a $5 ultrasonic SONAR would’ve prevented this.
About that much for a time of flight sensor that is faster and more reliable than sonar. But add them both for redundancy is the best.
ToF will generally go through glass (as long as it’s translucent to the relevant IR range).
IR will go through fog which is why it’s good for self-driving cars but it won’t be able to see glass any better than visible light cameras. Generally speaking this isn’t a problem though because you don’t tend to have windows in the middle of the road.
I think the better solution here is to simply have better defined no-go zones. Have the cameras identify possible issues like this and then just not go over there.
Ultrasonic is still simpler, cheaper, and more reliable
I thought they usually are just controlled remotely by poor people in other countries?
It probably had one. The software just probably sucks