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Comment by stephenitis | Hacker News Reader

I hear about bus drivers and truck drivers getting into accidents due to drowsiness enough that it's a constant worry whenever I'm on the highway next to one. I wonder if I'd feel safer if i saw a Tesla Semi knowing that were wasn't a human behind the wheel.

Should autonomous vehicles be identified as such (special lights or label) so that real humans can know not to be erratic around it?

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This comment reminds me of the various (likely apocryphal) laws when cars were still new and shared the road with cars.

Cars we considered the new weird thing that needed to take special steps to not spook horses or their riders/drivers.

Now, of course, the situation is reversed and horses often are required to have special visibility gear to be seen more clearly by cars.

So, perhaps in the future there will be some sort of indicator light that turns on when the idiot driver turns on manual driving mode so you (edit, or your car!) can give them a wide berth.

> So, perhaps in the future there will be some sort of indicator light that turns on when the idiot driver turns on manual driving mode so you (edit, or your car!) can give them a wide berth.

Agreed. Don't mark the autonomous vehicles. Mark the ones to be more concerned about: the ones with a human driving.

I think you meant "when cars still shared the road with horses." Right? :)

Should humans be monitored and have driving privileges revoked if they drive erratically?

Historically yes, if you cause problems your licence is revoked and in some cases your vehicle is seized.

I look forward to the rise of the machines, with humans losing driving privileges for simple things like wandering across lanes without signalling, running red lights, hitting pedestrians or bumping other vehicles in the parking lot.

"simple things like ... hitting pedestrians"

That doesn't seem very simple to me.

its simpler than you'd think

I don't think they should be identified. Look how drivers treat learners of they're marked - the marking are supposed to indicate 'this driver is inexperienced, be patient and expect them to do the wrong thing' but people treat it as 'please tailgate and honk until they stop out of fear'

> Should autonomous vehicles be identified as such (special lights or label) so that real humans can know not to be erratic around it?

Great idea. Would do wonders for marketing the capabilities too.

Humans would probably be more erratic if the vehicles drew attention to the fact that they were self-driving.

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