Hacker News Reader

Comment by dhoe | Hacker News Reader

Comments like this are why I'll cheer for that profession being automated away.

There are a lot of reasons for automated driving and most of them have something to do with human behaviour. Sorry for trying to put the statement about tailgating into perspective.

I think many truckers would welcome more automation. I know I would have when I was driving. The scenario you describe happens very regularly - A truck with speed limiter going down the road with cruise control for many hundreds of miles consistently - A car driver who makes a conscious decision to become a nuisance. The choice for the trucker is to either allow the other driver to choose a new lower speed for the truck, or attempt to intimidate the car in front which is actively preventing the pass and choosing to antagonize you. Neither choice is a good one, and that's where the automation comes in, to remove human emotions from the equation.

One thing that you should remember if you are the type of car driver that does this is that truckers are communicating with each other and not all of them are safety minded, or driving a company truck with a phone number on the back. What this means for you is that you may succeed in your little power trip against the truck behind and then have an unpleasant experience with one of the trucks up ahead. It's not right but it does happen. Some of these drivers are sociopaths who would be delighted to run you off the road.

For clarity, I'm not talking about quick little misunderstandings or short periods of distraction while a car driver makes a mobile phone call or sends a text. I'm talking about the parent comment with a truck attempting to pass a slow car and that car speeding up to prevent the pass, and then repeating that process several times. This happens often and it's maddening. You have to just let it go but you do wonder about the car driver, and why they choose to have a pissed off trucker following them. Automation can help with this for sure, and the car driver can go find another person to annoy.

You described a situation where a human truck driver, led by emotion and impatience, recklessly put lives in danger. An automated driver would not have reacted with annoyance and frustration.

Because he had to explain a situation where a driver in front of him caused a very dangerous situation and felt he had to respond in that way?

As much as I love driving, there will be many improvements when we don't have to drive to get to our jobs and things anymore. I'll get to go and play on a race-track, sure; but I won't have to be all hands on deck at 8 or 9 in the morning with everyone else who woke up 30 minutes to an hour ago.

The truck driver caused the dangerous situation by tailgating. There's no right to drive at the speed limit, and certainly no justification for causing danger when another driver is annoying you.

That's a bit of a tricky one though. A large truck can't stop very fast. They may end up tailgating if the car in front reduces speed.

If you are in a car it's definitely your responsibility to make sure you're doing the right thing. You're a lot more nimble and more able to make manoeuvres.

It is everyone's responsibility to do the right thing, but when someone does something wrong, it's completely unacceptable to make a more hazardous situation in response.

While true, unless there are extenuating circumstances (weather, limping car, etc), it's better to drive near the speed limit.

Much of the danger in driving occurs when there's a substantial difference in speed between cars. (I imagine the second most common time there's an accident is when cars are going almost exactly the same speed[1]). Driving 10 under can be very dangerous.

[1] my thinking here is that if you have 2 cars going almost exactly the same speed, but one is sitting in the other's blindspot, then one of them can attempt to change lanes and the other might miss it and suddenly accident.

Actually you can ticketed in many places for slowing down traffic for no reason.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com