There Auto Be A Law Suddenly Unavoidable, a AV PR story.
4 snips
Feb 5, 2026 
Phil Koopman, a computer engineer and author on embodied AI safety, weighs in on Waymo’s collision with a child and wider AV safety failings. He questions “sudden” defenses, probes school-bus and school-zone behavior, and critiques narrow benchmarks like NEON. The conversation covers redundancy, regulation differences, remote supervision tradeoffs, and demands for clearer transparency and evidence.
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Context Beats Twitch Reaction
- Waymo framing incidents as "sudden" avoids discussing contextual risk and slower driving choices.
- Phil Koopman argues that adapting speed to context (like school drop-off) matters more than reaction-time alone.
Benchmarks That Ignore Context Mislead
- NEON benchmark ignores context and only measures reaction once a pedestrian is visible.
- Phil Koopman warns this makes claims of being "superhuman" misleading when companies ignore pre-visibility precautions.
Use Redacted Visualizations, Not Silence
- Release a stick-figure visualization or anonymized reconstruction instead of withholding raw video for privacy reasons.
- Use that transparency to show context, justify decisions, and rebuild public trust quickly.
