> I wonder when an electronic computer will understand that the child might dart across the street after the dog.
It already does. Google colloquially calls it the "idiot detector". It includes things like small children, teenagers on skateboards, bicyclists, etc.
It was responsible for a bit of hilarity that when a hipster was rocking on his fixie at a stop sign, the car would start and stop entering the intersection.
Cars are probably better than humans at detection now.
You missed the point of the question. The point is that a human will see a child and a dog playing somewhat close to the road, will see the dog run out, and will infer that the child will dart after it before the child makes a move.
Self-driving cars see the dog and the child somewhat close to the road and classify them as a hazard IMMEDIATELY and start adjusting for them. And, if they lose track of them, the car goes into "Unseen Idiot" mode. You don't need the dog running out to focus their attention like a human does.
Self-driving cars don't have the attention span problems that humans have. Self-driving cars can watch more than 7 +/- 2 objects (much more) without diverting their attention.
Which means that self-driving cars can watch all 6 of those little kids walking, as well as the 4 on bicycles, and the two playing with the dog over there.
This is why self-driving cars will win ... and quickly.
Additionally, a self-driving car doesn't even need to care about recognizing children and dogs as members of their respective species. All they need is to notice there is a moving object, and to have some expectation of its maximum velocity. It's enough to compute the envelope that lets it safely avoid collision.
Waymo is capable of making these kinds of inferences, though I don't know if it can handle that specific case. From the safety report:
> Waymo’s planner can also think several steps
ahead. For example, if our software perceives that an adjacent lane ahead is closed due to construction,
and predicts that a cyclist in that lane will move over, our planner can make the decision to slow down or
make room for the cyclist well ahead of time.
It's funny I'd always conceived of AIs as being potentially better than humans, but this AI sounds more like an artificial Jeremy Clarkson, boiling with contempt
It already does. Google colloquially calls it the "idiot detector". It includes things like small children, teenagers on skateboards, bicyclists, etc.
It was responsible for a bit of hilarity that when a hipster was rocking on his fixie at a stop sign, the car would start and stop entering the intersection.
Cars are probably better than humans at detection now.