3 ms·

Guy seems like a panicky type. Would like to see him hop in a car with my relatives. Is FSD perfect? No. Much better than many human drivers? Yes.

madaxe_again 3y ago
Yeah… I have to intervene frequently when my mother is driving - she frequently turns to talk to me or whoever the passenger is, and while I’d in principle trust her judgment, she’s had a head-on with another car and driven off the road twice while doing this, and that’s only the times I have been present. My wife does this too, and has fishtailed on the highway when she has suddenly realised she’s drifted across two lanes while not looking at the road. She frequently decides to read and write messages while driving, with me and our infant daughter in the car. I think there’s a tendency to vastly overestimate the competence of human drivers.
- unshavedyak 3y ago
  > I think there’s a tendency to vastly overestimate the competence of human drivers. Further compounded by entitlement of freedom, imo. Yes, we all want freedom, but our ability to reduce public safety should be earned i suspect. We are very lax with driving safety and requirements (in the US at least). I mean hell, what percentage of people actually drive the speed limit, anyway?
- seadan83 3y ago
  I don't know if competence is overestimated compared to the willingness to persistently pay attention and simultaneously remember that it takes approximately 3 seconds to go from happily driving along to stopped in the highway in a wreckage wondering if your family is still alive or if you'll ever walk again. Which is to say, the risks of driving have become so sanitized, that we think it's something that is easy to automate. Arguably, if all road lanes were made 18 inches more narrow, we'd have a lot of the same effects. You have to pay a lot more attention in a narrow lane than one that is super wide. Generally though, humans are very competent drivers when paying attention and patient. The other part, it's hard to be patient given how much time is spent travelling via car and stuck in traffic jams. People get used to zooming around at 40 ~ 70mph, combined with the over-confidence of from the illusion of safety (all the road signs, extra wide lanes, road markers, obstructions removed from the road)... I think it just combines to a place where humans are poor drivers because they become impatient and stop paying attention all the time. It's like that first day of work, where everything you do - you have to think about incredibly hard. Eventually it all becomes 'auto-pilot', and this is encouraged by the road infrastructure; even to the extent that we think it's an easy problem to automate.
willsmith72 3y ago
"Better than many human drivers" is not good enough. "Better than 99.99% of human drivers" might be I can't wait to remove the entire "fell asleep and hit a tree", "drunkenly drove through a stop sign and killed a kid" class of accidents, but that alone is not enough

madaxe_again 3y ago

Yeah… I have to intervene frequently when my mother is driving - she frequently turns to talk to me or whoever the passenger is, and while I’d in principle trust her judgment, she’s had a head-on with another car and driven off the road twice while doing this, and that’s only the times I have been present. My wife does this too, and has fishtailed on the highway when she has suddenly realised she’s drifted across two lanes while not looking at the road. She frequently decides to read and write messages while driving, with me and our infant daughter in the car. I think there’s a tendency to vastly overestimate the competence of human drivers.

unshavedyak 3y ago
> I think there’s a tendency to vastly overestimate the competence of human drivers. Further compounded by entitlement of freedom, imo. Yes, we all want freedom, but our ability to reduce public safety should be earned i suspect. We are very lax with driving safety and requirements (in the US at least). I mean hell, what percentage of people actually drive the speed limit, anyway?
seadan83 3y ago
I don't know if competence is overestimated compared to the willingness to persistently pay attention and simultaneously remember that it takes approximately 3 seconds to go from happily driving along to stopped in the highway in a wreckage wondering if your family is still alive or if you'll ever walk again. Which is to say, the risks of driving have become so sanitized, that we think it's something that is easy to automate. Arguably, if all road lanes were made 18 inches more narrow, we'd have a lot of the same effects. You have to pay a lot more attention in a narrow lane than one that is super wide. Generally though, humans are very competent drivers when paying attention and patient. The other part, it's hard to be patient given how much time is spent travelling via car and stuck in traffic jams. People get used to zooming around at 40 ~ 70mph, combined with the over-confidence of from the illusion of safety (all the road signs, extra wide lanes, road markers, obstructions removed from the road)... I think it just combines to a place where humans are poor drivers because they become impatient and stop paying attention all the time. It's like that first day of work, where everything you do - you have to think about incredibly hard. Eventually it all becomes 'auto-pilot', and this is encouraged by the road infrastructure; even to the extent that we think it's an easy problem to automate.

willsmith72 3y ago

"Better than many human drivers" is not good enough. "Better than 99.99% of human drivers" might be I can't wait to remove the entire "fell asleep and hit a tree", "drunkenly drove through a stop sign and killed a kid" class of accidents, but that alone is not enough