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> A human driver would never be driving that fast.

They totally would. I see it... not infrequently. Basically any scenario where people in the right lane are there for a reason (e.g. taking an overburdened exit on a highway, turning right waiting for crossing pedestrians off of a main drag, HOV traffic vs non-HOV traffic etc.) I'll see traffic going by completely stopped traffic as fast as 60mph in the adjacent lane, and be the odd one out going by "slowly" at 40mph or so. Which looks to be about the same ballpark as in the video (which the description suggests was <45mph) and many surface streets (where you're passing parked cars.)

Not only would humans totally do it, I see it all the damn time. Faster than the Tesla is going, too. It always amazes me, their faith that no one will pull out in front of them...

According to the testimony of the driver, he was in fact focused on the right lane exactly in case someone tried to pull out.

He had no chance to see the car pulling a U-turn from the left.

A human driver would never be driving that fast. Taking into account familiarity with typical human behaviour, if you're in a lane that is moving well, you will expect at least some drivers from a slow lane to try to squeeze their way into the faster moving lane.

Well, I guess the devil's advocate argument is that what you say may only be true for a human driver.

After all, this video demonstrates the vehicle has the ability to rapidly react to a situation like that. So maybe the vehicle is driving at a safe speed for the conditions given what a computer is capable of.

Maybe I am a bad driver then, but that is exactly the speed I would have been traveling in those conditions. And that is how the average driver in my area would also be driving. The right lane is not completely stopped where the Tesla is, and it has plenty of room in front of it. I would have been aware of that car attempting to turn, but definitely not expecting it to. I have doubts as to whether I, or an average driver, would have reacted fast enough to them actually turning so suddenly. The Tesla however did react in time and not have a collision so it did what was expected of it.

You make an interesting point but I have to disagree. You can see at the very beginning of the video the traffic is still moving in the right lane and the buildup is just beginning. As far as we know the Tesla could have already begun decelerating to account for the change in condition in the right lane. Even if it's not, going at that speed in the left lane is not what I'd consider abnormal.

Additionally, what's not safe for a human driver might be safe for an automated one which knows it can react very quickly to a dangerous situation.

> A human driver would never be driving that fast.

I don't think it's clear at all that the car is driving faster than a typical human driver in this condition.

Agreed, video is very deceptive about the speeds and speed differentials of vehicles.

Yes they would - the Tesla is not traveling at a very different speed from the car in front of it, which I assume is human-driven.

Have you not seen human driving? A lot of people will go that fast compared to.stopped traffic.

More seriously theres no details, but i suspect the guy just chooses that speed is right, you're supposed to keep your hands on the wheel and change speed/etc as needed by the conditions

This was a human driver, Tesla's don't have a real autopilot system that can literally drive the car for you. The "autopilot" feature is just to avoid collisions, so in this case it just applied the breaks when it detected the car moving in front of it.

In addition, the right lane probably had so much traffic because it was an exit. In this case no one in that lane is going to suddenly hop into the left lane (they would obviously miss their exit if they did). In that situation it's really not that ridiculous to be driving that fast.

He was driving, the autopilot stepped in to stop the crash only.

In an interview, the driver stated that he didn't see the turning car because his attention was on cars that might switch out of the right lane.

Agree the speed differential was too much. It's dark, wet, with stationary vehicles and there's a junction (?)

It's cool to see how quickly the car stopped, but I think I'd be on edge about more neck jarring autopilot incidents in the future if I had been in the car

Better a neck jarring autopilot incident than a neck jarring collision!

True, although if the Tesla had been going at a less inappropriate velocity there would have been less need to brake so hard.

The old adage 'if you can't brake in time to prevent a collision then you are traveling too fast'.

That said, we could see an interesting era of robocars driving in ways which seem reckless but are still safe due to the superhuman reaction time.

I notice in the new Mercedes ad the line 'vehicle will not self-brake in all circumstances' which wouldn't fill me with confidence. It was often said that accidents actually increased after the introduction of ABS due to the false sense of security it gave drivers.

>if you're in a lane that is moving well, you will expect at least some drivers from a slow lane to try to squeeze their way into the faster moving lane.

Wait what? The car that squeezed in was from the the opposing lanes of traffic. In other words you are suggesting that the driver that almost caused the accident basically figured "oh no my lane is too slow, I guess I better go back in the opposite direction"? That makes no sense whatsoever.