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I would _love_ to see people pursue this sort of line. I see people make really simple mistakes that could be easily corrected when they drive. For instance, I

I would _love_ to see people pursue this sort of line. I see people make really simple mistakes that could be easily corrected when they drive. For instance, I think a HUD that told you how far ahead of you, in seconds, the next car was would do wonders. New drivers actually measure this and keep proper distance, but in my experience, experienced drivers adopt the norm of the driving culture, which is too short. I have asked people who care to be safe drivers how far the car ahead of them was, after I counted, and gotten answers that were way off. It's crazy to me people are so bullish on self driving cars. This is _exactly_ the sort of problem that humans are better at than computers - it's about exercising sound judgement in the face of novelty. I don't think humans are bad drivers, I think we have a toxic driving culture. I think if we found a way to professionalize driving, that didn't undermine the rights of employees by turning everyone into contractors, we could develop a healthy driving culture. Something closer to what exists in aviation. It is my observation that driving is not something you do with your full attention. It is a means to an end. And that leads to "get there itis", aggressive driving, all sorts of shenanigans.

ianai 5y ago
Couldn’t agree more. Seeing body bags at accidents on just about every commute in a large city (LV) between home/school really made that point for me. It started to feel like that city was engaging in some weird daily sacrifice since no one talks about “gee maybe we should drive more safely?” Or just ludicrously violent.
- NumberWangMan 5y ago
  Road design plays a massive part in accident rates but it's often unacknowledged as a factor. Many roads in the USA combine high-speed design (wide lanes, multiple lanes, clear zones) with frequent turns, intersections, busy shopping plazas with entering and exiting traffic, and generally complex traffic flows. To be safe around turns and intersections, traffic should be slow, but everything about the road design is telling our subconscious mind "it's safe to go fast here", regardless of the speed limit.
  - hansvm 5y ago
    > multiple lanes I'll bite. Suppose you have enough peak traffic that multiple lanes are necessary to transport it even at low speeds. What do you do instead?
    - maxbond 5y ago
      I think adding more lanes is a mental trap. It seems like when you have a lot of traffic, what you need to do is add more capacity to your road. But that doesn't end up working the way you'd expect, roads aren't like pipelines, because a road network is not only capacity for transportation but a subtle system of incentives. It's easy to add capacity and lose throughput because you change people's decision making and reap results you didn't anticipate. So, I would say, invest in a bus system to make better use of the lanes you have. Invest in a subway system to give people safe, cheap alternatives to car ownership. Change zoning so that people don't have to travel so far to get where they want to go. These are all incredibly expensive, a subway is certainly more expensive than adding a lane, but they have the advantage of actually addressing the problem. Transport really matters and we need to pony up for it, and we'll reap the benefits for generations.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
> I think if we found a way to professionalize driving, that didn't undermine the rights of employees by turning everyone into contractors, we could develop a healthy driving culture. Many (most?) truck drivers today that work as a part of a larger fleet have dash cams and in-cabin cameras that use AI/ML vision algorithms to evaluate how safely they drive. Coca-Cola really doesn't want to get sued for tens of millions of dollars because one of their truck drivers hit a pedestrian while he was checking his cell phone.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  Not most. Inside cameras are still controversial, but outside cameras are almost standard. It's mostly for avoiding lawsuits rather than anything else. Also, all of the AI/ML is terrible (like almost everywhere else).

ianai 5y ago

Couldn’t agree more. Seeing body bags at accidents on just about every commute in a large city (LV) between home/school really made that point for me. It started to feel like that city was engaging in some weird daily sacrifice since no one talks about “gee maybe we should drive more safely?” Or just ludicrously violent.

NumberWangMan 5y ago
Road design plays a massive part in accident rates but it's often unacknowledged as a factor. Many roads in the USA combine high-speed design (wide lanes, multiple lanes, clear zones) with frequent turns, intersections, busy shopping plazas with entering and exiting traffic, and generally complex traffic flows. To be safe around turns and intersections, traffic should be slow, but everything about the road design is telling our subconscious mind "it's safe to go fast here", regardless of the speed limit.
- hansvm 5y ago
  > multiple lanes I'll bite. Suppose you have enough peak traffic that multiple lanes are necessary to transport it even at low speeds. What do you do instead?
  - maxbond 5y ago
    I think adding more lanes is a mental trap. It seems like when you have a lot of traffic, what you need to do is add more capacity to your road. But that doesn't end up working the way you'd expect, roads aren't like pipelines, because a road network is not only capacity for transportation but a subtle system of incentives. It's easy to add capacity and lose throughput because you change people's decision making and reap results you didn't anticipate. So, I would say, invest in a bus system to make better use of the lanes you have. Invest in a subway system to give people safe, cheap alternatives to car ownership. Change zoning so that people don't have to travel so far to get where they want to go. These are all incredibly expensive, a subway is certainly more expensive than adding a lane, but they have the advantage of actually addressing the problem. Transport really matters and we need to pony up for it, and we'll reap the benefits for generations.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago

> I think if we found a way to professionalize driving, that didn't undermine the rights of employees by turning everyone into contractors, we could develop a healthy driving culture. Many (most?) truck drivers today that work as a part of a larger fleet have dash cams and in-cabin cameras that use AI/ML vision algorithms to evaluate how safely they drive. Coca-Cola really doesn't want to get sued for tens of millions of dollars because one of their truck drivers hit a pedestrian while he was checking his cell phone.

disgruntledphd2 5y ago
Not most. Inside cameras are still controversial, but outside cameras are almost standard. It's mostly for avoiding lawsuits rather than anything else. Also, all of the AI/ML is terrible (like almost everywhere else).