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Comment by freditup | Hacker News Reader

I'm not so sure that I'd say humans suck at driving. When driving on a busy freeway, with cars merging on and off and variance in flow speed, I find it pretty incredible that there aren't more accidents. Similarly, when in a place like Manhattan, I'm amazed that there aren't more accidents given the flow of cars, bikes, and pedestrians.

My point here isn't to start an argument (clearly the definition of "sucking at driving" is relative), but just pointing out that I'm fascinated that our roads work as well as they do, all things considered.

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> I'm not so sure that I'd say humans suck at driving.

Not only do they suck at driving, but they're also reckless. You'll find them doing all sorts of crazy things while driving:

- Search for something in the glove box.

- Do their make up.

- Read novels.

- Play Pokemon Go.

I'm not making up any of the above. The last one has even made the headlines in Japan recently because of 3 deadly accidents caused by drivers playing Pokemon Go, and because of video of a tourist bus driver playing Pokemon Go on the job.

It occurred to me some years back that it's kind of amazing that the only thing keeping people from driving all over the place is some lines painted on the street.

I'm also amazed at my ability to master gravity, relative velocity, and multiple physic parameters when I throw a paper ball in the bin.

Ballistics is so complicated and yet, our brains and and muscles do it all naturally.

On the other hand, I'm sure a properly configured and programmed robot will throw the paper ball into the bin more reliably than me.

So you don't think we suck, because for some reason you have a preconceived notion of how we should suck more, and how many accidents we should have?

I guess a million deaths is also an acceptable number a year for you?

This is part of the problem. In some countries, they aim for 0 fatalities, but in most we accept the number of deaths we have now.

Oh, don't be so dour and patronizing. Of course nobody wants traffic deaths. I explicitly stated that I'm not trying to start an argument about the definition of "suck". I was simply observing that I find it amazing that our roads work as well as they do now, given human propensity for error.

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