4 ms·

Safer than human driving isn't the bar that needs to be cleared. I consider myself a much safer driver than the average human (which also includes 70 year olds

by xmprt 4y ago

Safer than human driving isn't the bar that needs to be cleared. I consider myself a much safer driver than the average human (which also includes 70 year olds with driver's licenses) and I don't drive when I'm sleepy or drunk or even a little impaired. Even if the claim that it's "safer than human driving" is true, I would only ever use it if it was safer than my driving.

fragmede 4y ago
Fun fact: most people believe they're a safer than the average driver. Many people even believe this while driving drunk. Unless we start putting interlocks on all cars (which isn't entirely hypothetical[0]), they're just going to keep driving around drunk. Would you rather they drive drunk, or have an imperfect system that's better than drunk them, driving a car that also has an AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) system? [0] https://www.motortrend.com/news/anti-drunk-driving-technology-mandated-infrastructure-bill/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/anti-drunk-driving-technolog...
- archagon 4y ago
  Practically speaking, even if self-driving technology was widely available today, it would take decades for manual cars to get off the road.
- TomSwirly 4y ago
  I know I am not as good as the average driver, simply because I have much less practice, but I make up for it by extreme vigilance and caution, and I've never been in any sort of accident or moving violation. I think the world would be a better place if most people believed they were bad drivers like I do, and were much more vigilant and less aggressive.
JohnBooty 4y ago
And of course the pragmatic reality is that nearly everybody considers themselves "better than average." Tesla isn't merely competing with the actual average human driver, they're competing with the average human driver's unrealistically rosy perception of their own driving prowess.
- ovis 4y ago
  It's not necessarily unrealistic. It only takes one terrible driver to drag down the mean and make everyone else better than average!
  - tzs 4y ago
    A good example of how nearly everyone can be above average is number of arms. If, like 99+% of the population, you have two arms then you have an above average number of arms.
  - TomSwirly 4y ago
    Yeah, no. Driving skill is almost certainly normally distributed, and if so, your answer is wrong.

by xmprt 4y ago

fragmede 4y ago

Fun fact: most people believe they're a safer than the average driver. Many people even believe this while driving drunk. Unless we start putting interlocks on all cars (which isn't entirely hypothetical[0]), they're just going to keep driving around drunk. Would you rather they drive drunk, or have an imperfect system that's better than drunk them, driving a car that also has an AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) system? [0] https://www.motortrend.com/news/anti-drunk-driving-technology-mandated-infrastructure-bill/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/anti-drunk-driving-technolog...

archagon 4y ago
Practically speaking, even if self-driving technology was widely available today, it would take decades for manual cars to get off the road.
TomSwirly 4y ago
I know I am not as good as the average driver, simply because I have much less practice, but I make up for it by extreme vigilance and caution, and I've never been in any sort of accident or moving violation. I think the world would be a better place if most people believed they were bad drivers like I do, and were much more vigilant and less aggressive.

JohnBooty 4y ago

And of course the pragmatic reality is that nearly everybody considers themselves "better than average." Tesla isn't merely competing with the actual average human driver, they're competing with the average human driver's unrealistically rosy perception of their own driving prowess.

ovis 4y ago
It's not necessarily unrealistic. It only takes one terrible driver to drag down the mean and make everyone else better than average!
- tzs 4y ago
  A good example of how nearly everyone can be above average is number of arms. If, like 99+% of the population, you have two arms then you have an above average number of arms.
- TomSwirly 4y ago
  Yeah, no. Driving skill is almost certainly normally distributed, and if so, your answer is wrong.