4 ms·

I'm obviously not privy to the details of the prior crash, but I'm pretty sure any healthy human would not deliberately drive into the barrier. The most likely

I'm obviously not privy to the details of the prior crash, but I'm pretty sure any healthy human would not deliberately drive into the barrier. The most likely scenarios I can think of would be not paying attention and drifting into the barrier, attempting to avoid a car merging into the lane (and not paying enough attention), or being struck by another car and being forced into the barrier.

greglindahl 9y ago
At that particular point, what I see the most is people deciding that they either need to exit or not and abruptly crossing from one HOV lane to the other. Lots of crazy shit. So I'm not sure your scenarios have much relevance -- how many times have you driven through this intersection? I've been through it maybe a thousand times since it was built.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  I’ve seen people back up in the breakdown lane on the expressway because they missed their exit. But that was Beijing, and all drivers are hyper sensitive on the lookout for that kind of stuff.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    On my first drive into Bucharest a guy drove on the wrong side of the divided highway to take a left into the lot of a building supplies company right in front of my car. Scared the crap out of me. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.436552,25.9597006,18z https://www.google.com/maps/@44.436552,25.9597006,18z
    - paganel 9y ago
      Can confirm, have just driven for 2+ hours on the streets of Bucharest and there’s no way for an AI-like car to drive in here for more than 2 blocks without getting involved into an accident. Unless said car becomes sentient, but even in that case it would still have to “guess” some of the crazy stuff the other drivers on the road may be up to or to expect that a barely marked road-construction thingie will suddenly show up just in front of the vehicle while driving at 60 kph. And Bucharest has got nothing on a city like Istanbul.
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        It's the only place where I got honked at by a car on the sidewalk while walking on the sidewalk, and when I didn't get out of the way fast enough he proceeded to attempt to nudge me with his car.
Robotbeat 9y ago
I think the answer is that the path into the barrier looks just like an actual lane, and that this was enough confusion that a human driver apparently had made the same exact mistake a week earlier. https://imgur.com/a/iMY1x https://imgur.com/a/iMY1x https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-27-at-7-51-49-pm.png https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/screen-sho...
- 7dare 9y ago
  The lanes aren't very well indicated, but given how visible the divider is, I don't think either an autopilot or a driver should drive off. Reminds me of a scene in "La grande vadrouille" where a motorcyclist is killed on a mountain road because he was following the dotted line and the painter had gone to the side of the road to take a break. Also, that's an immense pothole!
  - eckza 9y ago
    > That’s an immense pothole! ... well you certainly aren’t from southeast Michigan, that’s for sure.
- shambolicfroli 9y ago
  CalTrans doesn't diagonally stripe spaces like that? It would seem that they should.
  - DrScump 9y ago
    There has been a lot of repaving work on 101, so these may well not be the final markings.
    - what_ever 9y ago
      I don't think that area has been repaved in a while.
- praptak 9y ago
  This divider looks rather unforgiving. Is it common for dividers in US to be just plain concrete blocks without anything to prevent rapid deceleration?
DrScump 9y ago
any healthy human would not deliberately drive into the barrier But plenty have driven negligently into barriers. The worst such crash I've ever seen was barely 2 miles from there, on northbound 85 near Fremont Ave. There is a soundwall that comes to a connection point where a wall segment is directly perpendicular to the freeway. For some reason, the guardrail had a gap there almost exactly the width of a vehicle. A few years ago, a vehicle veered off the right shoulder and perfectly threaded the gap, into the wall at full speed. It was compressed to maybe 5 feet long.
abalone 9y ago
Prior crash was a DUI.[1] [1] http://abc7news.com/automotive/exclusive-i-team-investigates-why-caltrans-didnt-fix-safety-barrier-before-tesla-driver-died-there/3280399/ http://abc7news.com/automotive/exclusive-i-team-investigates...

greglindahl 9y ago

At that particular point, what I see the most is people deciding that they either need to exit or not and abruptly crossing from one HOV lane to the other. Lots of crazy shit. So I'm not sure your scenarios have much relevance -- how many times have you driven through this intersection? I've been through it maybe a thousand times since it was built.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I’ve seen people back up in the breakdown lane on the expressway because they missed their exit. But that was Beijing, and all drivers are hyper sensitive on the lookout for that kind of stuff.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  On my first drive into Bucharest a guy drove on the wrong side of the divided highway to take a left into the lot of a building supplies company right in front of my car. Scared the crap out of me. https://www.google.com/maps/@44.436552,25.9597006,18z https://www.google.com/maps/@44.436552,25.9597006,18z
  - paganel 9y ago
    Can confirm, have just driven for 2+ hours on the streets of Bucharest and there’s no way for an AI-like car to drive in here for more than 2 blocks without getting involved into an accident. Unless said car becomes sentient, but even in that case it would still have to “guess” some of the crazy stuff the other drivers on the road may be up to or to expect that a barely marked road-construction thingie will suddenly show up just in front of the vehicle while driving at 60 kph. And Bucharest has got nothing on a city like Istanbul.
    - jacquesm 9y ago
      It's the only place where I got honked at by a car on the sidewalk while walking on the sidewalk, and when I didn't get out of the way fast enough he proceeded to attempt to nudge me with his car.

Robotbeat 9y ago

I think the answer is that the path into the barrier looks just like an actual lane, and that this was enough confusion that a human driver apparently had made the same exact mistake a week earlier. https://imgur.com/a/iMY1x https://imgur.com/a/iMY1x https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-27-at-7-51-49-pm.png https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/screen-sho...

7dare 9y ago
The lanes aren't very well indicated, but given how visible the divider is, I don't think either an autopilot or a driver should drive off. Reminds me of a scene in "La grande vadrouille" where a motorcyclist is killed on a mountain road because he was following the dotted line and the painter had gone to the side of the road to take a break. Also, that's an immense pothole!
- eckza 9y ago
  > That’s an immense pothole! ... well you certainly aren’t from southeast Michigan, that’s for sure.
shambolicfroli 9y ago
CalTrans doesn't diagonally stripe spaces like that? It would seem that they should.
- DrScump 9y ago
  There has been a lot of repaving work on 101, so these may well not be the final markings.
  - what_ever 9y ago
    I don't think that area has been repaved in a while.
praptak 9y ago
This divider looks rather unforgiving. Is it common for dividers in US to be just plain concrete blocks without anything to prevent rapid deceleration?

DrScump 9y ago

any healthy human would not deliberately drive into the barrier But plenty have driven negligently into barriers. The worst such crash I've ever seen was barely 2 miles from there, on northbound 85 near Fremont Ave. There is a soundwall that comes to a connection point where a wall segment is directly perpendicular to the freeway. For some reason, the guardrail had a gap there almost exactly the width of a vehicle. A few years ago, a vehicle veered off the right shoulder and perfectly threaded the gap, into the wall at full speed. It was compressed to maybe 5 feet long.

abalone 9y ago

Prior crash was a DUI.[1] [1] http://abc7news.com/automotive/exclusive-i-team-investigates-why-caltrans-didnt-fix-safety-barrier-before-tesla-driver-died-there/3280399/ http://abc7news.com/automotive/exclusive-i-team-investigates...