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Aren't most such accidents from people riding motorcycles without helmets? I don't think that practice will stop with autonomous vehicles.
by Asooka 10y ago
Aren't most such accidents from people riding motorcycles without helmets? I don't think that practice will stop with autonomous vehicles.
- onion2k 10y agoAren't most such accidents from people riding motorcycles without helmets? That certainly isn't the case here in the UK.
- manarth 10y agoWorth noting that helmets are mandatory in the UK, but optional in parts of the USA (as a Brit, I found this astonishing, the first time I visited the USA).
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoMy brother argues that a helmet makes you more likely to survive an accident, but it also makes you more likely to have an accident, since it cuts down on your awareness of your surroundings (peripheral vision and hearing).
- gambiting 10y agoWhich should lead to riding slower and being more careful, surely. Experiments have proven time and time again that the more confident we are in our surroundings, the more risks we take - so if a helmet makes it more difficult to know what's around you, it will make you more cautious. If someone riding with a helmet on is not cautious, then surely they wouldn't be cautious without it on, right? I'm clearly playing the devil's advocate here, but I guess assuming what you are saying is true, it would be choosing between "less accidents, but they are more severe" or "more accidents, but they are less severe". Which one is "better"? Is there a "better" here?
- Zigurd 10y agoMotorcycle miles are <10% car miles in the US. Also, autonomy will make roads safer for motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians.
- E6300 10y agoThe article talks about "no lanes, no separation, no stopping distances, and no signals, (except of course for pedestrians to cross)", though. How will no traffic signals work with manual traffic? For example, in an intersection with no stop signs and no "invisible traffic lights", how would a constant stream of automated traffic know that a bicycle is waiting to cross?
- gambiting 10y agoI'm guessing it would rely on the cars seeing a bicycle early enough to slow down. But yeah, I don't think that's going to happen, situations involving fast moving traffic will always need an extra degree of safety, even with fully automatic cars.
- rock_hard 10y agoWe will look back at comments like these in 100 years and cringe :)
- monort 10y agoIt will probably work like it works in Vietnam now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpsybD1MsNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpsybD1MsNQ
- Zigurd 10y agoThe same way it would know the rubbish pickup dropped a trash can into the street
- djaychela 10y agoPossibly (certainly not here in the UK), but the majority of motorcycle accidents involve another vehicle, and my experience (as someone who's ridden on the roads for nearly 30 years) of other road users is that it's often a lack of awareness of the presence of a motorbike that creates issues. I treat everyone else on the road as if they are actively trying to kill me, and it has worked so far. I'm sure that autonomous vehicles will be much more bike-friendly as they won't fail to look at junctions, and also will be much better at assessing the speed of an oncoming motorcycle (which many have problems with due to the size, apparently). And hopefully bikes will have some of the safety elements added to them by this time, making them inherently safer.