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> the majority of car accidents are perfectly avoidable if humans would at least not be reckless I agree with this statement, and wish that people would behave

by kw71 11y ago

> the majority of car accidents are perfectly avoidable if humans would at least not be reckless I agree with this statement, and wish that people would behave, but I think _accident_ is a bad word, they are crashes. I tried to think about unavoidable crashes, and maybe some weather situations approach this. What does the Google car do when it encounters a sudden lack of visibility on a highway?

jessaustin 11y ago
What we should all do: slow the fuck down! Seriously, there is no visibility level so low that there is no safe possible speed. However, humans are incapable of driving 3mph. I'm sure robocars could do that.
- mgarfias 11y ago
  Imagine that you're driving in the San Joaquin valley in the winter, it's a clear night, that stars are visible because a recent storm washed all the crap in the air that floated down from the Bay Area. You're doing 70 or so, with scattered traffic, and a car in your lane about 10-15 car lengths ahead. Suddenly his lights disappear, and 1 second later your roll into a fog bank with 15-20 feet of visibility. The driver ahead, followed your advice and slammed on his brakes. But because the fog is so thick, you can't see his brake lights, but that's ok right? You're already applying pressure to the brake pedal when you slam into the back of him. Then you're slammed into by the car behind you. Then a semi rolls in, and kills the lot of you. It happens every freaking year.
  - Thimothy 11y ago
    I don't see that scenario happening with driveless cars, where each and every one of them are programmed to react to the same stimulus in the same fashion, and are perfectly aware of how the other cars would react. I wonder if, with time, some kind of secondary radar system for cars will arise. If everyone was forced to have one in the car (as happens with planes), the mixing of driveless cars with regular ones would be greatly eased.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    70 mph is clearly too fast in that situation. You're missing the point, however. The conversation was about how robocars will be safer than human drivers, because they're not stupid. It isn't a contradiction, to point out another scenario in which many human drivers are stupid.

by kw71 11y ago

jessaustin 11y ago

What we should all do: slow the fuck down! Seriously, there is no visibility level so low that there is no safe possible speed. However, humans are incapable of driving 3mph. I'm sure robocars could do that.

mgarfias 11y ago
Imagine that you're driving in the San Joaquin valley in the winter, it's a clear night, that stars are visible because a recent storm washed all the crap in the air that floated down from the Bay Area. You're doing 70 or so, with scattered traffic, and a car in your lane about 10-15 car lengths ahead. Suddenly his lights disappear, and 1 second later your roll into a fog bank with 15-20 feet of visibility. The driver ahead, followed your advice and slammed on his brakes. But because the fog is so thick, you can't see his brake lights, but that's ok right? You're already applying pressure to the brake pedal when you slam into the back of him. Then you're slammed into by the car behind you. Then a semi rolls in, and kills the lot of you. It happens every freaking year.
- Thimothy 11y ago
  I don't see that scenario happening with driveless cars, where each and every one of them are programmed to react to the same stimulus in the same fashion, and are perfectly aware of how the other cars would react. I wonder if, with time, some kind of secondary radar system for cars will arise. If everyone was forced to have one in the car (as happens with planes), the mixing of driveless cars with regular ones would be greatly eased.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  70 mph is clearly too fast in that situation. You're missing the point, however. The conversation was about how robocars will be safer than human drivers, because they're not stupid. It isn't a contradiction, to point out another scenario in which many human drivers are stupid.