Cars for those who hate to drive

[Zenn7]

People around here know how to cross the street. Walk to that middle lane and continuing walking down the road as if were the sidewalk until it is clear to cross the other 1/2 of the road. (Best done at dusk/dark in dark clothing of course). 35-45mhp roads.

And the suicidal donation collectors. Let's wear an orange vest and walk up and down by cars to collect money for whatever charity by an intersection with a stoplight. No chance someone will switch lanes or swerve slightly. Given that people around here fail to avoid other cars frequently enough I can't fathom how these people manage not to get hit from time to time (not necessarily fatally every time, but injurious enough they'll be done collecting for the day at least).

[LawBeefaroni]

There are stretches in the city here that I call "suicide alleys". Areas where a combination of the road layout, average speed, and locals who seem so not care lead to tons of near misses. The main common thread is that there are long stretches without a crosswalk. People will just decide to cross wherever with the assumption that their pedestrian right-of-way is some kind of magic shield. Or maybe they think it's as good a day as any to meet that injury attorney they see in billboards.


If rumors get out that self driving cars are safer and will always stop, look out.

[Max Peck]

As a pedestrian, all of my close calls have been due to drivers that are turning left at a controlled intersection while keeping their attention focused over their right shoulder to look for oncoming traffic, and thus have no awareness of what's directly in their path. At least autonomous vehicles can look in two directions at the same time.

[stessier]

As a runner, all of my close calls have been with people turning right on red. They look over their left shoulder and never look right again before proceeding. I've seen them looking left a good 50 ft before a light because they know their way is clear straight ahead and never glancing right. I've learned to make eye contact before trusting anyone.

[wonderpug]

As a runner, all of my close calls have been with people turning right on red. They look over their left shoulder and never look right again before proceeding. I've seen them looking left a good 50 ft before a light because they know their way is clear straight ahead and never glancing right. I've learned to make eye contact before trusting anyone.

After a few years of semi-regularly doing a bicycle commute to work, when I drive I now obsessively check my right blind spot before making right turns, even if there should be no chance of there being a bike there.

[LawBeefaroni]

Summer driving in the city has made checking every direction multiple times habit by now. I don't even open the car door without checking both ways twice for bikes.

I'm also pretty good at predicting which cars are going to make a blind turn. Particularly bad in our neighborhood are left turns onto one-way streets. People assume there is no reason to look where they're turning, just to look ahead as they gun it to squeeze between oncomong traffic.

[Kraken]

At least autonomous vehicles can look in two directions at the same time.

Two directions are not enough. A variation on this is making the rounds as a poster right now:



Good luck crossing those streets.

[Paingod]

Good luck crossing those streets.

The trick to driving in Boston seems to be to close your eyes and just go. I honestly don't know how there isn't an accident every 29 seconds on each road. Living in Maine, we dread going down there and hate Boston drivers that come up for vacation.

I worry that a few inevitable deaths are going to dissuade people from buying fully into autonomous cars. If we can reduce traffic fatalities by 99.8% I think people will still get hung up on that 0.2% and refuse to accept it. That bugs me.

[Zaxxon]

I worry that a few inevitable deaths are going to dissuade people from buying fully into autonomous cars. If we can reduce traffic fatalities by 99.8% I think people will still get hung up on that 0.2% and refuse to accept it. That bugs me.

Definitely. This will be a thing. It's one reason why Musk and others in the space keep publicly targeting at least an order of magnitude improvement in safety. Telling the public that the cyborg cars are 20% better at preventing deaths won't fly.

[wonderpug]

At least autonomous vehicles can look in two directions at the same time.

Two directions are not enough. A variation on this is making the rounds as a poster right now:



Good luck crossing those streets.

When I first moved to Boston I got stuck in an endless loop in the one on the bottom row, second from the left. I had my car packed to the brim, so I had zero visibility checking my blind spot. If you're in the inner lane of the loop, you need to change at least 2-3 lanes to the right in order to get to an exit. I think I did about 3 laps before I had to settle for just having a really good hunch that it was clear, and I basically did the Paingod solution and just went for it. (successfully!)

[Jeff V]

The trick to driving in Boston seems to be to close your eyes and just go.

I prefer channeling my inner rage. If a city ever needed their cars taken away, they would be the place to start.

[Kraken]

At least autonomous vehicles can look in two directions at the same time.

Two directions are not enough. A variation on this is making the rounds as a poster right now:



Good luck crossing those streets.

When I first moved to Boston I got stuck in an endless loop in the one on the bottom row, second from the left. I had my car packed to the brim, so I had zero visibility checking my blind spot. If you're in the inner lane of the loop, you need to change at least 2-3 lanes to the right in order to get to an exit. I think I did about 3 laps before I had to settle for just having a really good hunch that it was clear, and I basically did the Paingod solution and just went for it. (successfully!)

It took me years to learn that one does not use one's blinker to say "Won't you please welcome me into your lane, kind citizen?" but rather "Outta my way asshole, I'm cutting in NOW."

[Max Peck]

Waymo CEO on fatal autonomous Uber crash: Our car would have been able to handle it

Nearly a week after an autonomous Uber SUV claimed the first life in testing of self-driving vehicles, the CEO of another tech company says he is confident its cars would have performed differently under the circumstances.

John Krafcik, chief executive officer of Waymo, formerly Google’s autonomous vehicle project, said Waymo’s cars are intensively programmed to avoid such calamities.

“I can say with some confidence that in situations like that one with pedestrians — in this case a pedestrian with a bicycle — we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be robust and would be able to handle situations like that,” Krafcik said Saturday during a panel at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas.

Krafcik had been asked directly if a Waymo car would have reacted differently than the self-driving Uber.

Bold words...

[Max Peck]

Uber car 'had six seconds to respond' in fatal crash

The sensors of a self-driving Uber car spotted a pedestrian pushing a bicycle across the road six seconds before killing her, according to a report.

The on-board identification system classified her as an "unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle".

The car slowed slightly but failed to avoid Elaine Herzberg, 49, of Tempe, Arizona, or perform an emergency stop.

And the car's human operator took control a second before impact but did not hit the brake until just after.

The US National Transportation Safety Board said its preliminary report drew no conclusions about "probable cause".

It says: "All aspects of the self-driving system were operating normally at the time of the crash, and there were no faults or diagnostic messages."

[Kasey Chang]

I think the report also stated that the Volvo's built-in auto-brake also picked up the pedestrian, but the auto-brake was disabled for the autonomous mode as the AI should not have to fight another system.

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Last two days I ended up driving practically two show-room new Honda CR-Vs, both were added to the Zipcar fleet. One had only 44 miles on the odo, and the other had 154. Both still have the "window sticker" residue on the left back window. Both cars are nice. The darker interior is probably a bit easier to live with, as the other "light-brown" texture seems to get dirty easily. The car even has the original back floormats in the cargo area, UNOPENED in original plastic. Hah. Performance is decent for a 4 cylinder, feels not that different than say, a Civic, except higher off the ground, but you don't notice it much unless you're taking an off-ramp at 50mph. Didn't have time to adjust the seats completely, so was not 100% comfortable, and the music/console system IMHO isn't quite as nice as, say, Subaru's. But that's IMHO. It works. AC fan is quite noisy when you turn up the fan a bit.

[Jeff V]

Things do to while riding in a driverless car:

1. Read a book
2. Do some work
3. Take a nap
4. Get laid