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This is why driving is the most dangerous activity most people usually do.

spywaregorilla 4y ago
Pretty sure driving would be the most dangerous thing most people do without this
tiborsaas 4y ago
I highly doubt that, driving is dangerous because of: ego, technical failures, carelessness, sleep deprivation and other human factors. Probably our visual imperfections are the least important things to blame.
- zip1234 4y ago
  My meaning is that, for example, ego and carelessness are tied into our visual system. People believe they are more attentive and have better reactions than they actually have.
pyinstallwoes 4y ago
Why? The entire activity is within our simulated expectation of how time works vs how it really works. To the aliens we are using bumper lanes for time. Like bowling.
- zip1234 4y ago
  It's not just saccades, it is the entire system of vision and all of the approximations that the brain is doing in order to process the information. The twitter thread only goes into a couple things. There is also inattentional blindness, which happens all the time in driving due to distractions.
- otikik 4y ago
  We are using a system that was grown, trained and optimized for a ~80kg mostly-water biped with full proprioception and 5 senses to move a ~1900kg metal quadruped using only vision and hearing. A car routinely reaches 120 km/h. The fastest human who ever existed, Usain Bolt, can only sustain a third of that for ~10 seconds.
archi42 4y ago
Anecdata: Just a few days ago I was entering a road after checking really carefully for absence of traffic (I had a heavy trailer attached and knew I needed some more time). Visibility on the left was excellent, but on the right not so much, so I waited for the right side to clear... look left, also clear, great... quickly check right again, still all clear. I was surprised by the car coming from the right honking at me after I entered the lane, because I was 100% sure that it wasn't there before and could not have been "hiding" behind the A-pillar. Maybe they were too fast, but now I think it's realistically possible that my perception tricked me because the glance to the right was too quick. Will definitely adjust the timing for that.
bambax 4y ago
Yes! This is why you need to look twice at everything, esp. at intersections, while also moving your head. If you do a simple glance, your brain will be perfectly happy to show you a nice empty road, ignoring the incoming vehicle that it didn't have time to properly see. (I was actually taught this when I got my motorcycle license.)
GuB-42 4y ago
Not really, safe driving is not about split second decisions. Cars have a lot of inertia, at highway speeds, it takes several seconds to stop your car, and your ability to avoid obstacles is limited. Even with instant reactions, it won't make much of a difference, the car can't do better. So driving is more about planning what you are going to do for the next 10 seconds and making sure nothing bad can happen during that time period, if things are not sure, take defensive action (slow down, ...). In fact, most good drivers don't pay attention to what's just in front of them, they can't do anything about it anyways. Instead, they will continuously focus their attention on what comes next and act accordingly.

Pretty sure driving would be the most dangerous thing most people do without this

I highly doubt that, driving is dangerous because of: ego, technical failures, carelessness, sleep deprivation and other human factors. Probably our visual imperfections are the least important things to blame.

zip1234 4y ago
My meaning is that, for example, ego and carelessness are tied into our visual system. People believe they are more attentive and have better reactions than they actually have.

pyinstallwoes 4y ago

Why? The entire activity is within our simulated expectation of how time works vs how it really works. To the aliens we are using bumper lanes for time. Like bowling.

zip1234 4y ago
It's not just saccades, it is the entire system of vision and all of the approximations that the brain is doing in order to process the information. The twitter thread only goes into a couple things. There is also inattentional blindness, which happens all the time in driving due to distractions.
otikik 4y ago
We are using a system that was grown, trained and optimized for a ~80kg mostly-water biped with full proprioception and 5 senses to move a ~1900kg metal quadruped using only vision and hearing. A car routinely reaches 120 km/h. The fastest human who ever existed, Usain Bolt, can only sustain a third of that for ~10 seconds.

archi42 4y ago

Anecdata: Just a few days ago I was entering a road after checking really carefully for absence of traffic (I had a heavy trailer attached and knew I needed some more time). Visibility on the left was excellent, but on the right not so much, so I waited for the right side to clear... look left, also clear, great... quickly check right again, still all clear. I was surprised by the car coming from the right honking at me after I entered the lane, because I was 100% sure that it wasn't there before and could not have been "hiding" behind the A-pillar. Maybe they were too fast, but now I think it's realistically possible that my perception tricked me because the glance to the right was too quick. Will definitely adjust the timing for that.

bambax 4y ago

Yes! This is why you need to look twice at everything, esp. at intersections, while also moving your head. If you do a simple glance, your brain will be perfectly happy to show you a nice empty road, ignoring the incoming vehicle that it didn't have time to properly see. (I was actually taught this when I got my motorcycle license.)

GuB-42 4y ago

Not really, safe driving is not about split second decisions. Cars have a lot of inertia, at highway speeds, it takes several seconds to stop your car, and your ability to avoid obstacles is limited. Even with instant reactions, it won't make much of a difference, the car can't do better. So driving is more about planning what you are going to do for the next 10 seconds and making sure nothing bad can happen during that time period, if things are not sure, take defensive action (slow down, ...). In fact, most good drivers don't pay attention to what's just in front of them, they can't do anything about it anyways. Instead, they will continuously focus their attention on what comes next and act accordingly.