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I live outside of Pennsylvania Dutch country and two weeks ago driving in that area I was shocked to see many horse and buggy drivers distracted by their iPhone
by paul7986 5y ago
I live outside of Pennsylvania Dutch country and two weeks ago driving in that area I was shocked to see many horse and buggy drivers distracted by their iPhones.
- masterof0 5y agoDo they have turn signals in their buggy? or they just use their hands to signal? I would suppose the horse knows the road, is in "auto" mode. Obviously i have no experience with horses at all.
- filoeleven 5y agoThey have turn signals, along with flashing hazard lights. And they’re quite necessary, since they’re often traveling at less than a quarter of the speed of the traffic around them. Without a turn signal, car drivers would try to pass a buggy that has moved into the middle of the lane in order to make a left turn.
- reidjs 5y ago"The Amish don’t always reject a technology, but they have very specific rules about how it is to be used." Maybe they determined a way to use their iphones without them being harmful? I.e. using specific apps or only in certain circumstances.
- isk517 5y agoI feel like depends on whether or not they are using their iPhone while operating their horse and buggy.
- codingdave 5y agoTo be fair, a horse and buggy is somewhat self-driving. The horse knows how to walk and stop and when to make a noise if something goes awry.
- nirav72 5y agoCan the horse and buggy automatically move out of the way if someone else is about to hit it?
- isk517 5y agoYes but you shouldn't rely on it and should always be paying attention. We're hoping that the next version of horse should be fully autonomous.
- codingdave 5y agoYes. It is a horse. Horses are completely capable of independent movement.
- klyrs 5y agoWithin the limitations of the horse's reaction time and maneuverability with an attached buggy, yes.
- filoeleven 5y agoAnd those limitations are severe, given the speed limits of many rural roads. Even at 35 MPH, a car is 3x as fast as a horse and buggy.
- jayspell 5y agoThe other key is that each community decides for themselves what is permitted and not permitted. Some Amish are permitted to drive cars, but only if the car is black, but this is community specific. Source - my brother-in-laws family left the Amish when he was young, so he got to see both worlds.
- zyang 5y agoSounds like they have better self driving tech.
- zepto 5y agoSelf-driving horse.
- quaffapint 5y agoThey also make use of solar panels on their farms. They just don't use public power.
- throwawayboise 5y agoI don't know a lot about the Amish, but my understanding is that it's less about the technology itself and more about its effects (as is the focus of this article) and also the dependencies it creates. The Amish are OK with using electricity as long as they can generate it themselves. They don't want to be dependent on a utility to provide it.
- markkanof 5y agoYes, it's common for Amish carpenters to use lot's of modern power tools in the course of their work, but will often remove the electric motor and replace it with a belt drive that is powered by a water wheel or similar.
- tofflos 5y agoIn a don't-text-while-driving context it might be more suitable to compare buggy drivers to car passengers. Horses are alive and will try to avoid crashing violently.
- leephillips 5y agoSo, unlike Tesla, the Amish have a working auto-drive system.