Should we design for self-driving cars - or for people? | Sam Schwartz | TEDxMidAtlantic

Sam Schwartz, the traffic engineer who literally invented the word "gridlock," offers an overview of the last 100 years of cars and traffic. And he offers the sobering warning that if we don't alter our ideas about autonomous vehicles, we may find ourselves living in a future designed for cars rather than the people they are intended to serve. Mr. Schwartz is CEO of Sam Schwartz Transportation Consultants, a firm that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. He is the traffic columnist, Gridlock Sam, for The New York Daily News (he released the word ‘gridlock’ into the public lexicon). Previously Mr. Schwartz was New York City’s Traffic Commissioner. He started his transportation career in the late 1960’s as a NYC cabbie and joined the Traffic Department, as a junior engineer, in 1971.
Mr. Schwartz’s most recent books, No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future (2018) and Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and The Fall of Cars (2015) lay out a recipe for cities faced with rapid changes in modes, automation, demographic shifts and travelers’ preferences.
Mr. Schwartz has been an adjunct professor for 40 years at some of New York City’s most respected colleges and universities including Cooper Union, Long Island University, Hunter College and Brooklyn College.
He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Brooklyn College and received a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@Johan-vk5yd]

Walking or bicycling is beneficial to people. We should plan for those modes of transport where possible.

[@natinjacam]

Thank you so much for this talk, we need to defeat the myths about blaming the pedestrians, we need a more equitable world.

[@SerenityEscapes]

Informative. I did not realize there are more deaths from obesity/inactivity than vehicle crashes.

[@marsBeBelinda]

It was actually very misinformative just because it has facts that are new to you does not mean that he is not trying to deceive you and harm all that you care about as he has destroyed your entire life since he first started getting paid to betray you

[@ozzyfromspace]

Sam Schwartz: So, I'd like to present for the first time ever, *THE IPED* Apple: Interesting...

[@aysanullahkhan4226]

B

[@angrytedtalks]

Jay walking is an American invention. In the UK, pedestrians have always had right of way, until the motorways were built in the 1950s. The first cars had a person walking in front with a red flag. That is why cars have a horn.

[@silascochran9705]

I need one of those damn cars. Because my post traumatic is so bad. I parked my car and never drove again. In 2006 but without a car in this country you are crippled. I'm stuck in a s******* town. I can't get out of. Cuz there is no no public transportation. In this goddamn so-called superpower we live in

[@CaseyFinSF]

Stick out your thumb and hitchhike to a better location with good public transportation. Or take a train.

[@silascochran9705]

@@CaseyFinSF Answer me.

[@silascochran9705]

@@CaseyFinSF in some places you can't get a train. And you know where you can stick your thumb. Boy You know how you can tell a coward on KZbin? They don't use their real name. Conspiracy, man🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🇺🇸⚓ KZbin is helping me find these ridiculous trollers🇺🇸

[@silascochran9705]

@@CaseyFinSF We know who you are now.

[@silascochran9705]

Drug addict

[@gemasalmoral6781]

Superb talk!!

[@kristenhawkins5453]

This is awesome 🥊

[@yogeshkad6928]

Thank you

[@dswansonism]

That's funny - a traffic design engineer says just walk! HA!

[@husqvarna17]

The only time I want to see the inside of a self driving car is when I’m so drunk I don’t care if I survive the drive.

[@upgrade1583]

Cars are exoskeletons. When i'm wearing one, I find walkers so slow and annoying.

[@marsBeBelinda]

So we talked about emotional intelligence and since you lack it what you are feeling and I don't mean to be hostile in this and what you are feeling is envy and if you don't want to suffer that feeling Park the damn machine and join us

[@dharmendrasinghpal4924]

My suggestion to tedx talk use English subtitles with speech

[@nievesvigo2882]

No han puesto subtítulos en otros idiomas, por ejemplo español.

[@camberwellcarrot420]

Cars are freedom. Self-driving cars might end up locking the doors and driving you to the work camp for wrongthink.

[@camberwellcarrot420]

@DB Cooper I do. And you should know about freedom, since you parachuted to it.

[@Drexaan]

14:23 "develop a counter terrorism strategy" dayum they must be afraid of them' calves once we WALK

[@theprathamesh3540]

Yes but actually no!

[@davidioanhedges]

Dear USA get rid of Zoning, the biggest difference between a city in the USA and elsewhere is where you want go in the USA is always further way than you are willing to walk,

[@SolvingOptimizationProblems]

Avoid using cars if possible. Walking is the best medicine for people. Did you know that?

[@DaoNguyen-ox8cw]

Good idea. We should walk more often

[@marsBeBelinda]

@@DaoNguyen-ox8cw said like somebody who's trying to get laid

[@thinkabout602]

Come down to south fl. in winter or take a drive through boston. I'm ready for autonomous cars at any time.

[@ozzyfromspace]

The big point of this talk is that we can do it, but we really need to ask ourselves whether we should.

[@leipzigfuralle]

a good one.

[@cloudhi]

He brought up some interesting points. This innovation for AV seems as if it would solve all problems with traffic and death by automobile accidents, but if we have these AV in our current traffic system, we will probably set ourselves back to the inefficiencies of the early 1900s. We try to move forward with AV now, but maybe the timing for it is just not right yet? Our roads and traffic signals were designed for humans, not for AV, so if we want to put AV on the roads it may mean a much larger change than we expect.

[@AmaritoMan]

The word remarkable it's not enough :) thank you professor & congratulations you are still "H U M A N"

[@foyezbinimroze9519]

From Bangladesh💟

[@johnmivule-novabow8143]

Should we make AUTO PILOT a thing? Yes, yes we should

[@t3dwards13]

Do it for yourself. Leave me out of it.

[@johndemeritt3460]

Auto pilots for aircraft have existed for a long time -- but they don't have to deal with a lot of the problems that autonomous ground vehicles do. Auto pilots for ground vehicles are much more complex technologies that have to work right first time and every time in a very complex environment. Oh, and they have to be unhackable, too. There's no networked computer system that has thus far proved unhackable. I have little doubt this will continue to be true in the future.

[@tps607]

Sam...focus on mass transit. Self-driving vehicles will never be the answer

[@a.m.v.6938]

1911 my dad was 1 year old.

[@johndemeritt3460]

Wow! A Civil Engineer who made sense! Thank you, Mr. Schwartz -- this was one of the most refreshing TEDx Talks I've ever heard. By the way, I used to work in a US Air Force Civil Engineering Squadron. I've known a few engineers in my time . . . .

[@user-wl5gq6gz7p]

subtitles would be great :(

[@marsBeBelinda]

Actually if you read my comments you will see how it this is best watch without sound or subtitles all you have to see is this guy that took the world and he shows you in the video and turned it into the world that we presently suffer

[@janehonda4073]

If you are talking about statistic, then tell us how many people die every day from other modern things that they use, such us pharmaceuticals / medicine, food / soda, cellphones, stress, etc. In addition, I would like to know how many people were killed every day because of horse powered transportation before the year of 1911. I believe, they were a lot too.

[@johndemeritt3460]

Jane Honda, there were a lot of people dying because of horse-powered transportation in the early 1900s. But the more difficult problem back then was managing the amount of horse manure dropped on city streets every day. To move as many people today via horse-drawn machines would be a sanitation nightmare! Still, some foresight could have gone a long way to reducing the problem -- and might have made automobiles less attractive. How do we achieve the balance? By looking for people who can help us assess the whole range of problems new technologies present.

[@marsBeBelinda]

Jane when you ask for a number and somebody says a lot you should probably say actually you know I asked for a number and if you don't know anything about what the number is maybe you could shut up. Now I'm not saying I have the precise number but if you read my comments you will see that several times I have said it is to tistic li0 well that's a very poor spelling isn't it let's try that again statistically zero okay so whatever abbreviation that tistic Leo is maybe that's what we can call our new church the church of tistic Leo okay you want to be a member of the tistic Leo faith because horses did not kill pedestrians when they pulled carriages all right in order to be hired to pull a carriage you had to be a better horse than that and so your answer is 0 and I place my reputation upon this answer. About all the horses dying well horses die like people die and you know it's not a big deal people died at work people died in bed people died in a mainly does Ling Red Bull and if you care about learning what you do Miss Honda you know Honda is very interesting Honda is very serious and your respect for Honda is likely Noble so maybe you own one of their personal Jets or something if they have in fact started selling it I know they used to use it largely for marketing but I love Honda and I think that you know maybe someday I might even like them

[@isthisshit4real]

@@marsBeBelinda - Wow.... all that blathering and you didn't say a damn thing.

[@kirtchaurasia1793]

Wow...

[@hansgeorgzojer6345]

Avoid accident with pedestrian? Why not exploit the fact That everyone has a mobile phone nowadays? Mobile device could send signal to AV so AV knows that unidentified object is a person crossing street and not an image artifact.

[@marsBeBelinda]

Well of course your German and thinking that people should be required to show their face or emit radio frequency identification information. Although you could say that identifying who you are would not the need to be emitted by you what chance is there of that Hans and frankly the issue here is now that we have electricity do we need to move our bodies?

[@CaseyFinSF]

Quick Answer: BOTH

[@subjectory]

well yes but actually no

[@Mrbeecash]

alzxri no but yes

[@n.gineer8102]

Cars became more dangerous when they got easier to drive. Take away the automatic transmission and the radios and then you have to pay attention to drive. AV are only trying to compensate for the lack of attention people have gotten used to and they will only be successful for a short until they too become crutches for even worse drivers.

[@marsBeBelinda]

@@user-to2rf1rj5v JJ you are high on amphetamines because if you had actually heard what was said the complaint was that in America we have not forced AI to stop the car when the drivers would not be able to afford insurance without it right this is what is happening to the car makers is that the insurance companies are you saying increasing number of people are uninsurable and that guess what infects their bottom line and so yes they will across the world managed to get customers to pay for technology that keeps them being gouged

[@amberjohnson5488]

Both because the car drives the person either way

[@amirhuggins1909]

pedestrians, cars, then driver

[@UncleRice00]

The problem with autonomous vehicles is that it gives someone else the power to tell you where you can and cannot go. Walking everywhere chains people to just the opportunities within walking distance. Both of these restrictions have been used in the past to people's harm by authoritarian types. Authoritarian types have killed way more people than cars have. As such, I am opposed to any requirements of either.

[@jacksonpercy8044]

Just get a helicopter, no restrictions whatsoever.

[@marsBeBelinda]

Well Google starting to repeat what I said and didn't capture basically anything of what I just said maybe 10% okay maybe just 10% of what I said got dictated there at the beginning and then I was talking to what appeared to be my words being dictated but it was just very very slowly repeating the first words that I said which is a shame and if anybody wants to be to buy the audio of this dictation session it is in six or seven figures but it is for sale

[@Thebasicmaker]

Like for the donald trump joke

[@Green.Country.Agroforestry]

Design for people, not autonomous vehicles. AVs are NOT going to be the transportation of the future. Already, automatic braking is creating unsafe road conditions through 'phantom braking', where the AI misinterprets information from sensors, and brakes suddenly. Within a completely closed system, an AV might be as safe as a human driver, but so long as humans (and birds, dogs, rain, snow, wind, dust, bits of debris, and too many things to possibly itemize, or program for) have access to the system, it will never be closed. Driver alert systems are all well and good, so long as they can be easily muted or disabled when (not if) they malfunction. The stress induced by having to listen to a constant faulty alert creates a road hazard all by itself!

[@marsBeBelinda]

Anyways Google stop listening before I concluded my comments eventually I will learn to know when I have to wrap it up with Google in terms of how long my brain is of course a machine that learns it is a wet machine so it learns better than the dry or whatever machines that we are building this machine that I was left with that is the result of the DNA and the education and the health and the discipline and the passion and ambition that I bring to life and always have one of my brain to come up with his saying that you and I we're not going to figure this out we need to assemble juries that don't know anything about the question and then we need the screen the knowledge that we share with the jury and then we need to let the jury work it out in the Jury Room whether it's who's the next president right or whether we should spend money on the few effusion or do as I say which is to just take the heat out of the nitrogen in the air and use that to distribute the geothermal etcetera energy from one place in the planet to the place that is needed I don't think this is complicated and I think that you're a will agree with me and the battle is to get that jury and to get those Rules of Evidence and spend the days of the weeks and months presenting it and to live with the verdict because I hope I'm wrong if I'm wrong because then I will be able to find out the Superior Solution and that's what my life is about is about being open to the superior Solutions after all of the davenants is considered by a why is group who has not been given you know some carefully crafted button-pushing compromising of their sanity nonsense

[@premier69]

i see how people drive, ii bet on the AI's to do a better job.

[@MrFastFarmer]

Overpopulation is a real problem. Death is not a bad thing.

[@krg9942]

Why is Trump brought into the topic?

[@contentity]

I'd argue that the majority of the safety features for cars that he mentioned were basically step towards car Autonomy anyways. Braking for you, keeping you in lane, taking over if you're drunk. Sounds like an Autonomous car

[@senthildarshani7478]

Im so happy:$ 10000 you hi

[@googlenutzer8768]

cringe af video at the end

[@GrowingABetterTomorrow]

Lots of fear-based rhetoric that's not based on physics, physiology or pathophysiology.

[@michaeli5884]

Your delivery of those statistics were unclear. It sounds like you’re saying the opposite of what you mean.

[@marsBeBelinda]

His granddaughter is about to have her head cut clean off and he's trying to lie so much he has a stroke so he doesn't see it

[@theringmaster3684]

Autonomous vehicles make me nervous. As we all know technology (especially new) is far from flawless, countless problems could occur and/or get hacked into (already happened with Tesla). Technology has made us lazy, the more technology has advanced the higher the obesity rates have climbed, coincidence?

[@isaiahbaker3597]

That doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing, just that we have to be careful. Imagine how scary commercial air travel would have seemed when the first planes were being built. Now it's way safer than driving. Being skeptical is ok but remember to keep an open mind

[@theringmaster3684]

Isaiah Moorehead True. The autonomous vehicles would be good for the elderly who’s driving skills has diminished, so they could still have their freedom. They were talking about using these in semi trucks, putting people out work, that isn’t good!

[@marsBeBelinda]

@@theringmaster3684 actually there is a place for semi truck drivers and it's called prison

[@mblake0420]

I dont care what anyone says, your not getting my steering wheel or my guns, come and take it!

[@johndemeritt3460]

Blake, if the Hog says "Brrrrrrrrt!", both your steering wheel and your guns will be gone. Let's not play those games -- better total things through.

[@mblake0420]

@@johndemeritt3460 over my dead body sir

[@johndemeritt3460]

@@mblake0420 , that's exactly what you'd say just before the Hog says "Brrrrrrrrrrt".

[@gaussdog]

Sam, You should get together with Elon,... you have a lot of experience and knowledge however, ...for example, we don’t have to get rid of transit systems in order to have autonomous vehicles. That’s with the boring tunnels are for, and we can also do this above ground. Specific areas dedicated for vehicles to take your “autonomous wheelchair” from one area to another. You don’t have to own the wheelchair, he picks you up at your house, and Zooms you to a local substation and then you move at some unbelievable speed, through something similar to a boring tunnel or dedicated Lane, such as the bus lanes in Los Angeles on which no vehicles can travel, and pedestrians are almost completely unable to enter or interact with… Autonomous wheelchair systems, trust me when I tell you this… You already have an image that is similar, but misrepresents the idea in your video…

[@t3dwards13]

I'll continue to control myself. Thanks anyway.

[@marsBeBelinda]

Do you sell used cars for a living occasionally giving a discount to the 16 year old girls for some you know what time with them?

[@t3dwards13]

@@marsBeBelinda Care to have your comment make sense?

[@MichaelKelly-hw7yz]

i ዊለለ ብ ፐላyiነገ ዛፐ

[@MichaelKelly-hw7yz]

ዠAጰ

[@MichaelKelly-hw7yz]

ጨAኘኀቨORROух кух

[@MichaelKelly-hw7yz]

1911© {¤¤¤} {¤¤¤}1921

[@MichaelKelly-hw7yz]

ሰፕaደ ጎጽንረ ዋሰ a ዱደ

[@DDMSakb48]

13:53 WTF , Jaywalking makes a city more livable ? This video is a total waste of time.

[@ProfaneGrue]

Great, walking is a real solution to the disabled and elderly. Really fantastic use of my time thank you.

[@chickennoodle6620]

As opposed to the elderly pressing the wrong pedal and ramming into a home or shop?

[@rgbled4778]

Yeah walking keeps you fit

[@angrytedtalks]

AVs would only drive safer than humans. The idea that they would be a problem on roads is absurd. Lightning reactions, sensors humans could only dream of and much more efficient. Assuming we can use fuel, of course. Old guy needs those boots up his backside.

[@hopeambridge2763]

THIS IS HOW MANY PEOPLE LOVE TED TALKS😍 (I’m just a KZbin singer tryna make friends 💛✨)

[@hopeambridge2763]

Xoxo

[@BioTheHuman]

Wow, such a dishonest video. AV aren't the solution for safe roads? Then why do you say that new safety systems drastically improved the safeness? Those systems are autonomous systems. Why do you need to lose money and time to make people learn how to drive safe when you can put an AV car doing it for itself? Same goes for the "let's go into the past" example. Of course cars made a lot of deaths, but how many lives have been "saved" in sense that people found new jobs and new children were born thanks to this. Industrial revolution made a lot of deaths too, so, better if would have never existed?