4 ms·

Lawrence Expressway is terrible. I frequently see cars stopped at these "merge lanes".

by AceJohnny2 8y ago

saagarjha 8y ago
But that’s what you’re supposed to do here, right? There’s a yield sign.
- userbinator 8y ago
  You're not supposed to stop at a yield sign if there isn't traffic preventing you from merging. That's why it's a yield sign, not a stop sign. Since the report mentions Apple's car was moving slowly (~1mph) when it got hit, I suspect what could've happened is it may have just released the brakes and was about to accelerate into the merge, meaning the car coming from behind would see both a clear path in front of it and its brake lights off. There's a comment here about the car behind following too closely, but if you look at regular traffic and your own driving behaviour, you'll find that you subconsciously monitor and anticipate the behaviour of the cars around you --- meaning that almost everyone is technically "following too closely" to expect the car in front to suddenly and rapidly brake to a complete halt. Self-driving cars are far less predictable in that sense. If you come up behind a car in a merge lane with its brake lights off and no traffic obstructing it, you would not expect it to be slowing down or even stopped, because your past knowledge has taught you that a car in this condition is almost certainly going to be accelerating.
  - njarboe 8y ago
    Computer controlled cars should have some sign or way of easily telling that they are computer controlled. Maybe if this was true, too many people would fuck with them, unlike those cars that say "student driver". Maybe the sign should say "student driver" when it is controlled by a computer. Definitely a true statement at with the current tech
    - dan-robertson 8y ago
      People often fuck with student drivers too. Eg aggressively trying to overtake because they don’t want to be behind a learner. Although I suppose this is a different sort of fucking with than the kind you mean.
      - njarboe 8y ago
        One could hope that the number of always recording cameras and other sensors on auto-auto would deter most of the jerks.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    > You're not supposed to stop at a yield sign if there isn't traffic preventing you from merging. That's why it's a yield sign, not a stop sign. That's what I meant; you're supposed to stop if there's oncoming traffic. That's what I assume the car was programmed to do. I have no idea what the other car was doing or what it was thinking–there's always the chance that it was someone who was distracted.

Lawrence Expressway is terrible. I frequently see cars stopped at these "merge lanes".

saagarjha 8y ago

But that’s what you’re supposed to do here, right? There’s a yield sign.

userbinator 8y ago
You're not supposed to stop at a yield sign if there isn't traffic preventing you from merging. That's why it's a yield sign, not a stop sign. Since the report mentions Apple's car was moving slowly (~1mph) when it got hit, I suspect what could've happened is it may have just released the brakes and was about to accelerate into the merge, meaning the car coming from behind would see both a clear path in front of it and its brake lights off. There's a comment here about the car behind following too closely, but if you look at regular traffic and your own driving behaviour, you'll find that you subconsciously monitor and anticipate the behaviour of the cars around you --- meaning that almost everyone is technically "following too closely" to expect the car in front to suddenly and rapidly brake to a complete halt. Self-driving cars are far less predictable in that sense. If you come up behind a car in a merge lane with its brake lights off and no traffic obstructing it, you would not expect it to be slowing down or even stopped, because your past knowledge has taught you that a car in this condition is almost certainly going to be accelerating.
- njarboe 8y ago
  Computer controlled cars should have some sign or way of easily telling that they are computer controlled. Maybe if this was true, too many people would fuck with them, unlike those cars that say "student driver". Maybe the sign should say "student driver" when it is controlled by a computer. Definitely a true statement at with the current tech
  - dan-robertson 8y ago
    People often fuck with student drivers too. Eg aggressively trying to overtake because they don’t want to be behind a learner. Although I suppose this is a different sort of fucking with than the kind you mean.
    - njarboe 8y ago
      One could hope that the number of always recording cameras and other sensors on auto-auto would deter most of the jerks.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  > You're not supposed to stop at a yield sign if there isn't traffic preventing you from merging. That's why it's a yield sign, not a stop sign. That's what I meant; you're supposed to stop if there's oncoming traffic. That's what I assume the car was programmed to do. I have no idea what the other car was doing or what it was thinking–there's always the chance that it was someone who was distracted.