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Not related to the article but I want to chime in on your point. Having spent some time in VA, aggressive driving and dangerous scenarios were infrequent from m

Not related to the article but I want to chime in on your point. Having spent some time in VA, aggressive driving and dangerous scenarios were infrequent from my experience. Then having spent some time in FL, aggressive driving was the norm and driving laws did not exist for most people. So I wonder, do self-driving cars needs something like driving profiles for certain regions, where defensive/aggressive response behavior is ramped up or down in accordance to what is observed? In a passive region where you only have to slam your breaks or jerk the wheel in rare instances, the profile would be tuned to give gentle responses to changes in traffic conditions However, in regions where aggressive driving is rampant, the profile would have to be tuned to be alert that sudden responses to other drivers frequently breaking the law and putting people in dangerous situations is common and to respond in kind. For example, to not slam the breaks when you get cut off, or not to speed up when an impatient person is literally 1 foot away from your bumper even thought you're doing 5 over the limit already. Now that can all be bundled into one, and already is I think in current self driving cars. I'm asking specifically if it would help self driving performance and decision making if the decisions could be influenced by knowing how rough things can or can't get in that area.

sudouser 8y ago
exactly, act according to context. driving in SF is totally different from nearby places like Lakeshore or San Leandro (people from those places complain about how bad people drive in SF)
dahart 8y ago
Personally, I’d rather see driving behavior normalize nationally than cater to regional differences in enforcement. The driving laws in each city & state the US are less different than the locally accepted behaviors, but it would be safer all around if drivers and pedestrians all expected the same things, and if we took traffic & safety laws more seriously. More enforcement of existing traffic laws will save many orders of magnitude more lives than customizing autonomous cars for various cities.
- Sangermaine 8y ago
  The "reality should conform to my ideal, not my ideal to the reality" approach is and has always been a guaranteed recipe for failure. "Let's change everyone's minds and behavior everywhere" is much harder than changing software.
  - dahart 8y ago
    That’s an ungenerous way to paraphrase what I said, given that we already have traffic laws, and enforcement of those laws.
    - Sangermaine 8y ago
      But the point is those laws aren't enforced the same way in different areas, even when they're the same. Jaywalking is illegal in NYC. Come here and see if anyone, cops included, cares. But other cities seem to care much more about that. It's not as simple as having the same laws, or having them enforced, because the underlying cultural attitudes are different. If you tried to crack down on jaywalking in NYC you'd be laughed out of the city.
      - dahart 8y ago
        It doesn’t matter what the cultural attitudes are. All it takes to change it is a significant increase in fines, then people would, statistically speaking, break the law less often. We don’t have to convince the public to accept more enforcement, that’s not how traffic laws are made or enforced. What we have is a system of cultural attitudes that’s bad for us. People are dying all the time because of lax attitudes. What you’re advocating is status quo. Why? Is it a good thing that a lot of people in NYC who choose to jaywalk get hit by cars? I’m not on a mission to change things, I don’t care that much if people jaywalk. I’d prioritize speeding enforcement far above jaywalking. I’m just pointing out the obvious — that fretting over how safe it is for autonomous cars to obey the law is just “enculer les mouches”, to use the French term. It’s nitpicking the tiniest of margins while ignoring the primary cause of the problem.

sudouser 8y ago

exactly, act according to context. driving in SF is totally different from nearby places like Lakeshore or San Leandro (people from those places complain about how bad people drive in SF)

dahart 8y ago

Personally, I’d rather see driving behavior normalize nationally than cater to regional differences in enforcement. The driving laws in each city & state the US are less different than the locally accepted behaviors, but it would be safer all around if drivers and pedestrians all expected the same things, and if we took traffic & safety laws more seriously. More enforcement of existing traffic laws will save many orders of magnitude more lives than customizing autonomous cars for various cities.

Sangermaine 8y ago
The "reality should conform to my ideal, not my ideal to the reality" approach is and has always been a guaranteed recipe for failure. "Let's change everyone's minds and behavior everywhere" is much harder than changing software.
- dahart 8y ago
  That’s an ungenerous way to paraphrase what I said, given that we already have traffic laws, and enforcement of those laws.
  - Sangermaine 8y ago
    But the point is those laws aren't enforced the same way in different areas, even when they're the same. Jaywalking is illegal in NYC. Come here and see if anyone, cops included, cares. But other cities seem to care much more about that. It's not as simple as having the same laws, or having them enforced, because the underlying cultural attitudes are different. If you tried to crack down on jaywalking in NYC you'd be laughed out of the city.
    - dahart 8y ago
      It doesn’t matter what the cultural attitudes are. All it takes to change it is a significant increase in fines, then people would, statistically speaking, break the law less often. We don’t have to convince the public to accept more enforcement, that’s not how traffic laws are made or enforced. What we have is a system of cultural attitudes that’s bad for us. People are dying all the time because of lax attitudes. What you’re advocating is status quo. Why? Is it a good thing that a lot of people in NYC who choose to jaywalk get hit by cars? I’m not on a mission to change things, I don’t care that much if people jaywalk. I’d prioritize speeding enforcement far above jaywalking. I’m just pointing out the obvious — that fretting over how safe it is for autonomous cars to obey the law is just “enculer les mouches”, to use the French term. It’s nitpicking the tiniest of margins while ignoring the primary cause of the problem.