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Comment by ender89 | Hacker News Reader

Actually, it sounds like the self-driving car got muscled out by the bus. They claim that the the car AND the driver of the car thought the bus would let them through. Now this is a problem with the car not driving defensively enough, because either the car miscalculated the bus's ability to slow or assumed the bus would be able to see the car and react accordingly (or, just possibly, the bus driver is an ass who tried to shut out the car. I know, its practically unheard of, but its possible). I don't think this is a deathblow to self-driving cars, nor is it a sign that they are worse at driving than people, only that they are still being perfected and that the single greatest threat to a self driving car are people because they are the ultimately unpredictable.

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Anecdotally, this is a lesson I too had to learn, almost the hard way. The closest I've ever come to accidents in city driving is with municipal buses. City buses seem to drive as though they always have the right of way, and other cars will always get out of their way.

Coming from a smaller, more suburban area, I learned to recalibrate my driving to be more aggressive in larger cities (primarily NYC & DC), to hold my own against pushy taxis, etc. Most city drivers kind of bluff, and if you show you're not falling for it, they'll stay out of your way.

But city buses don't bluff. If they start pulling into your lane, even if clearly cutting you off, you better slam on those brakes, because that bus is not stopping. It's one of those unwritten rules you learn, at least in my experience driving in major East Coast cities.

I can see how it'd be hard to train AI that you have adjust the driving style depending your locale and for specific types of non-emergency vehicles.

I'm not making an argument here, really just sharing a chuckle about the crash involving a city bus.

  But city buses don't bluff. If they start pulling into
  your lane, even if clearly cutting you off, you better
  slam on those brakes, because that bus is not stopping.

Bus drivers would learn just like you did if there were a few thousand unmanned cars whose programming assumed every other driver would follow the law :)

Reminds me of this story:

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/fd667/while_ridi...

The city buses effectively do have the right of way, at least in the sense that, if you have an accident with a city bus, you are going to be considered at fault, rules notwithstanding.

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