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"Throughout the entire duration the AV is stopped, traffic remains unblocked and flowing to the right of the AV," a Cruise spokesperson said in a statement. "Th

by 38 3y ago

"Throughout the entire duration the AV is stopped, traffic remains unblocked and flowing to the right of the AV," a Cruise spokesperson said in a statement. "The ambulance behind the AV had a clear path to pass the AV as other vehicles, including another ambulance, proceeded to do." Cruise seems to be ignorant of the law here. the law is: YOU GET OUT OF THE WAY of emergency vehicles, period. unless you are "landlocked" by other cars, you get the fuck out of the way, so that they can do their job. it is not acceptable to say "well the other lanes were clear, so its the ambulance fault. most human drivers instinctively know this.

pests 3y ago
I was taught to allow the ambulance to manuever and do what it needs to do. It will drive the wrong direction down a road, hop onto curbs, drive on sidewalks, etc. They have trainining and experience in this type of driving. It sounds like moving to the other lane would have just blocked another ambulance. What is the procedure here?
- joshribakoff 3y ago
  What part of “pull over to the right” is hard to understand or ambiguous for you? Thats my understanding of the law.
  - pseudo0 3y ago
    That's how it is supposed to work in theory, in reality emergency vehicles will use whatever lane has open space. If that happens to be the middle lane or right lane, or sometimes even the shoulder, they will go there. Eg. Let's say you have a three lane highway with a block of cars cruising in the middle lane and one car slowly passing in the left lane, with the right lane clear. An emergency vehicle rapidly approaching sees this and moves to the clear right lane. Technically you are supposed to move right to allow them to pass on the left, but they are already passing on the right, so moving over would impede them.
  - pests 3y ago
    If the ambulance is in the right lane - do I still pull over in front of them? Every lane is blocked besides the right lane - do I block it or line up behind another car already at the light? The real world isn't so black and white.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mlyle 3y ago
No one is saying that the Cruise vehicle was behaving well. But there's clearly a difference in the scope of the problem between A) vehicle behaves badly, but it causes no harm, and B) vehicle behaves badly in a way that causes harm repeatedly.
robswc 3y ago
I do think Cruise's responses to stuck cars needs work but problems with emergency vehicles and drivers happens all the time. I remember an ambulance was right behind me at an intersection. The right turning lane was free but it was right behind me. I got really uncomfortable because I had 0 idea what to do, if I was supposed to basically break the law and go into the intersection on red so that it could get by. After a few seconds, I decide to pull into the right lane but I guess the ambulance driver had the same exact idea at the same exact time and almost read-ended me. So then I get back into the other lane and he goes through the right lane just fine, like he could have the whole time. I'm not blaming anyone btw, maybe he thought the light would change soon or something. I wanted to get out of the way, but I had no idea what way the ambulance wanted to go. In my mind, if it wanted to go forwards, it just had to get into the right lane and run the red light (which ofc they can do). I think everyone was equally confused because everyone else just sorta froze to let it go by in the right lane.
- Clent 3y ago
  You did the wrong thing. You should have moved to right. It's not your responsibility to predict where the ambulance wants to go or do the wrong thing because everyone else is doing the wrong thing.
  - robswc 3y ago
    >You should have moved to right. If I did that then the ambulance would have been totally blocked, unless _all_ the cars in front of me also did that (they didn't) or if they pulled into the intersection on red. If I did that, then I would have to pull into the intersection on red after moving to the right lane. I have no idea if you're supposed to run a red light if an ambulance is behind you and I didn't want to take my chances. What are the rules for that in Virginia, doing a quick google search I can't find them?
- pjscott 3y ago
  Yeah, this is the thing that bothers me about people's response to robo-taxis. They're not compared to human drivers, who make mistakes all the time. They're compared to a theoretical ideal of perfection, and people get outraged when they inevitably fall short. The problems with the status quo are easy to overlook, just a normal part of life that everybody has come to accept -- but the problems with any attempted change are headline news.
flandish 3y ago
Cruise does not get to decide where the amb goes. The amb does. If the amb needs the car to move, it needs to move. For ANY reason. Often with more info than the driver has. So the solution is: move. 100% of the time. Don’t clap back with “yeah but you could have gone to my right.”

by 38 3y ago

pests 3y ago

I was taught to allow the ambulance to manuever and do what it needs to do. It will drive the wrong direction down a road, hop onto curbs, drive on sidewalks, etc. They have trainining and experience in this type of driving. It sounds like moving to the other lane would have just blocked another ambulance. What is the procedure here?

joshribakoff 3y ago
What part of “pull over to the right” is hard to understand or ambiguous for you? Thats my understanding of the law.
- pseudo0 3y ago
  That's how it is supposed to work in theory, in reality emergency vehicles will use whatever lane has open space. If that happens to be the middle lane or right lane, or sometimes even the shoulder, they will go there. Eg. Let's say you have a three lane highway with a block of cars cruising in the middle lane and one car slowly passing in the left lane, with the right lane clear. An emergency vehicle rapidly approaching sees this and moves to the clear right lane. Technically you are supposed to move right to allow them to pass on the left, but they are already passing on the right, so moving over would impede them.
- pests 3y ago
  If the ambulance is in the right lane - do I still pull over in front of them? Every lane is blocked besides the right lane - do I block it or line up behind another car already at the light? The real world isn't so black and white.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mlyle 3y ago

No one is saying that the Cruise vehicle was behaving well. But there's clearly a difference in the scope of the problem between A) vehicle behaves badly, but it causes no harm, and B) vehicle behaves badly in a way that causes harm repeatedly.

robswc 3y ago

I do think Cruise's responses to stuck cars needs work but problems with emergency vehicles and drivers happens all the time. I remember an ambulance was right behind me at an intersection. The right turning lane was free but it was right behind me. I got really uncomfortable because I had 0 idea what to do, if I was supposed to basically break the law and go into the intersection on red so that it could get by. After a few seconds, I decide to pull into the right lane but I guess the ambulance driver had the same exact idea at the same exact time and almost read-ended me. So then I get back into the other lane and he goes through the right lane just fine, like he could have the whole time. I'm not blaming anyone btw, maybe he thought the light would change soon or something. I wanted to get out of the way, but I had no idea what way the ambulance wanted to go. In my mind, if it wanted to go forwards, it just had to get into the right lane and run the red light (which ofc they can do). I think everyone was equally confused because everyone else just sorta froze to let it go by in the right lane.

Clent 3y ago
You did the wrong thing. You should have moved to right. It's not your responsibility to predict where the ambulance wants to go or do the wrong thing because everyone else is doing the wrong thing.
- robswc 3y ago
  >You should have moved to right. If I did that then the ambulance would have been totally blocked, unless _all_ the cars in front of me also did that (they didn't) or if they pulled into the intersection on red. If I did that, then I would have to pull into the intersection on red after moving to the right lane. I have no idea if you're supposed to run a red light if an ambulance is behind you and I didn't want to take my chances. What are the rules for that in Virginia, doing a quick google search I can't find them?
pjscott 3y ago
Yeah, this is the thing that bothers me about people's response to robo-taxis. They're not compared to human drivers, who make mistakes all the time. They're compared to a theoretical ideal of perfection, and people get outraged when they inevitably fall short. The problems with the status quo are easy to overlook, just a normal part of life that everybody has come to accept -- but the problems with any attempted change are headline news.

flandish 3y ago

Cruise does not get to decide where the amb goes. The amb does. If the amb needs the car to move, it needs to move. For ANY reason. Often with more info than the driver has. So the solution is: move. 100% of the time. Don’t clap back with “yeah but you could have gone to my right.”