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It should be possible to overtake a self driving car and carefully slow down in front of it until a full stop. Normally they detect that and stop too.

by andix 5y ago

modeless 5y ago
Tesla autopilot can overtake slow cars. You might have to swerve and block it. Certainly possible, as it is not aggressive, but it wouldn't be as straightforward to stop it as with regular traffic aware cruise control.
- jsight 5y ago
  That's possible, but the article said that it changed lanes to the left while signaling to the right. That rules out having NoA enabled with "confirmationless" lane changes.
  - modeless 5y ago
    That would rule out autopilot entirely, wouldn't it? If true then this is just a case of someone falling asleep behind the wheel that could happen in any car. But with modern safety features like lane departure avoidance and automatic emergency braking. Tesla's active safety features can even brake for stop signs and traffic lights in addition to cars and pedestrians. And regenerative braking will bring the car to a stop much more quickly than a gas car when the accelerator is not pressed.
    - jsight 5y ago
      I'm trying to think of weird edge cases, but yeah it does seem like the odds are against AP being on in this case. Maybe TACC was on, but even that seems a little inconsistent with the report.
- WalterSear 5y ago
  I, for one, am not getting into a car fight with our robot overlords.
lhorie 5y ago
That in itself can also be dangerous. There are in fact traffic laws in various places against driving too slow or otherwise impeding traffic flow because doing so can cause accidents.
- masklinn 5y ago
  And you can't use your warnings from the front (well you can but they'll be invisible). So unless the self-driving vehicle has a routine to activate those on weird slowdown it may be very hard for the traffic coming behind to notice, further increasing the danger.
- andix 5y ago
  You are always allowed to stop in an emergency. Or if your engine stops working for example ;)
  - lhorie 5y ago
    You're supposed to turn on your blinkers and pull over ASAP. Stopping cold on a highway lane is a huge hazard.
AlexandrB 5y ago
On a highway that could cause an accident as traffic behind the self driving car would have to screech to a stop or swerve around. There needs to be some way to get it to pull over onto the shoulder.
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  This highlights a meta-problem of highways in general: they're very high-speed conduits, which are not intended for traffic to whiplash to 0 MPH in a short distance, where accidents and emergencies can definitely create roadblocks that force traffic to whiplash to 0 MPH over a short distance. It'd be nice to have a solution to that. There are no inexpensive ones (rails handle this with corridor control... Every N miles, a signal indicates whether it's safe to proceed to the next segment. Some sections of highway have signage allowing for this; most don't).
  - mcast 5y ago
    I've always wanted to run a traffic simulation to see if traffic is eliminated if the highway was partitioned (5-10 rows of car per partition) into several chunks going at a precise speed and requiring cars to maintain some distance between the next partitions behind them. This could be accomplished with some tracking laser following the cars against the wall. Of course this would be ruined as soon as drivers wanted to hop into the partition in front of them, change lanes, etc. Another slightly relevant idea is to mark intersections with a large red no-go area placed at the calculated point, where, if you were going the speed limit, if the traffic signal changed to yellow and you were in this box you could not safely pass the stop line. I hate having to guess how long a yellow light is (3 to 6 seconds is a large gap).
- vkou 5y ago
  If you can't slow down in time to avoid hitting the car in front of you when it slows down, you're tailgating, and are a danger to yourself and the cars around you.
  - foxfluff 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

It should be possible to overtake a self driving car and carefully slow down in front of it until a full stop. Normally they detect that and stop too.

by andix 5y ago

It should be possible to overtake a self driving car and carefully slow down in front of it until a full stop. Normally they detect that and stop too.

modeless 5y ago

Tesla autopilot can overtake slow cars. You might have to swerve and block it. Certainly possible, as it is not aggressive, but it wouldn't be as straightforward to stop it as with regular traffic aware cruise control.

jsight 5y ago
That's possible, but the article said that it changed lanes to the left while signaling to the right. That rules out having NoA enabled with "confirmationless" lane changes.
- modeless 5y ago
  That would rule out autopilot entirely, wouldn't it? If true then this is just a case of someone falling asleep behind the wheel that could happen in any car. But with modern safety features like lane departure avoidance and automatic emergency braking. Tesla's active safety features can even brake for stop signs and traffic lights in addition to cars and pedestrians. And regenerative braking will bring the car to a stop much more quickly than a gas car when the accelerator is not pressed.
  - jsight 5y ago
    I'm trying to think of weird edge cases, but yeah it does seem like the odds are against AP being on in this case. Maybe TACC was on, but even that seems a little inconsistent with the report.
WalterSear 5y ago
I, for one, am not getting into a car fight with our robot overlords.

lhorie 5y ago

That in itself can also be dangerous. There are in fact traffic laws in various places against driving too slow or otherwise impeding traffic flow because doing so can cause accidents.

masklinn 5y ago
And you can't use your warnings from the front (well you can but they'll be invisible). So unless the self-driving vehicle has a routine to activate those on weird slowdown it may be very hard for the traffic coming behind to notice, further increasing the danger.
andix 5y ago
You are always allowed to stop in an emergency. Or if your engine stops working for example ;)
- lhorie 5y ago
  You're supposed to turn on your blinkers and pull over ASAP. Stopping cold on a highway lane is a huge hazard.

AlexandrB 5y ago

On a highway that could cause an accident as traffic behind the self driving car would have to screech to a stop or swerve around. There needs to be some way to get it to pull over onto the shoulder.

shadowgovt 5y ago
This highlights a meta-problem of highways in general: they're very high-speed conduits, which are not intended for traffic to whiplash to 0 MPH in a short distance, where accidents and emergencies can definitely create roadblocks that force traffic to whiplash to 0 MPH over a short distance. It'd be nice to have a solution to that. There are no inexpensive ones (rails handle this with corridor control... Every N miles, a signal indicates whether it's safe to proceed to the next segment. Some sections of highway have signage allowing for this; most don't).
- mcast 5y ago
  I've always wanted to run a traffic simulation to see if traffic is eliminated if the highway was partitioned (5-10 rows of car per partition) into several chunks going at a precise speed and requiring cars to maintain some distance between the next partitions behind them. This could be accomplished with some tracking laser following the cars against the wall. Of course this would be ruined as soon as drivers wanted to hop into the partition in front of them, change lanes, etc. Another slightly relevant idea is to mark intersections with a large red no-go area placed at the calculated point, where, if you were going the speed limit, if the traffic signal changed to yellow and you were in this box you could not safely pass the stop line. I hate having to guess how long a yellow light is (3 to 6 seconds is a large gap).
vkou 5y ago
If you can't slow down in time to avoid hitting the car in front of you when it slows down, you're tailgating, and are a danger to yourself and the cars around you.
- foxfluff 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]