4 ms·

Injured motorcyclist accuses robot-driven vehicle of 'negligent driving'

10 points by rrauenza 9y ago

neveroffensive 9y ago
As a someone who as ridden motorcycles for a few years now, I surprisingly have very little sympathy for the motorcyclist in this story. I've done the exact same thing I imagine this motorcyclist did a hundred times, aggressively passing a car before it's completed a lane change. This is an obviously dangerous and bad idea. I don't think the fact that the car was robot-driven even made much of a difference. The same thing could have just as easily happened with a human driver.
ams6110 9y ago
Lane-splitting should be illegal. It puts vehicles in places where they are not expected to be, and "I didn't see him" is one of the most common explanations for collisions.
magnetic 9y ago
One of the reasons I don't use the autopilot that much in my Model S is that it is trying to be "too perfect", in the sense that it seems to want to stay right in the middle of the lane. You may be thinking: why would that be bad? It seems like a reasonable approach. It is reasonable, but not good enough. In the Bay Area, potholes abound, and the car - if left to its own driving style - will happily go over every single one of them. Same if there is any hazard on the road (tires, debris, etc): no avoidance at all. The second thing is that it will not adapt to lane sharing traffic: the car will happily go back to center, even though a motorcycle may be passing it to the side. Even if the sensors detect it, it's still a bad scare for the motorcyclist who will believe that I tried to run him/her over. At the end of the day, I end up having to take over too frequently to be very useful. The cognitive load of maintaining a lane is so small that it doesn't feel like offloading it is a big benefit. Once we reach full autonomy (with an algorithm that minimizes damage to the car from potholes and other elements), it'll be different I think.

4 ms·

Injured motorcyclist accuses robot-driven vehicle of 'negligent driving'

10 points by rrauenza 9y ago

neveroffensive 9y ago
As a someone who as ridden motorcycles for a few years now, I surprisingly have very little sympathy for the motorcyclist in this story. I've done the exact same thing I imagine this motorcyclist did a hundred times, aggressively passing a car before it's completed a lane change. This is an obviously dangerous and bad idea. I don't think the fact that the car was robot-driven even made much of a difference. The same thing could have just as easily happened with a human driver.
ams6110 9y ago
Lane-splitting should be illegal. It puts vehicles in places where they are not expected to be, and "I didn't see him" is one of the most common explanations for collisions.
magnetic 9y ago
One of the reasons I don't use the autopilot that much in my Model S is that it is trying to be "too perfect", in the sense that it seems to want to stay right in the middle of the lane. You may be thinking: why would that be bad? It seems like a reasonable approach. It is reasonable, but not good enough. In the Bay Area, potholes abound, and the car - if left to its own driving style - will happily go over every single one of them. Same if there is any hazard on the road (tires, debris, etc): no avoidance at all. The second thing is that it will not adapt to lane sharing traffic: the car will happily go back to center, even though a motorcycle may be passing it to the side. Even if the sensors detect it, it's still a bad scare for the motorcyclist who will believe that I tried to run him/her over. At the end of the day, I end up having to take over too frequently to be very useful. The cognitive load of maintaining a lane is so small that it doesn't feel like offloading it is a big benefit. Once we reach full autonomy (with an algorithm that minimizes damage to the car from potholes and other elements), it'll be different I think.