Hacker News Reader

Comment by wyldfire | Hacker News Reader

> The Cruise car makes a left turn and then gets stuck behind a delivery truck. It waits as a couple of other vehicles overtake it

I suppose I'd probably notice if I was a semi-engaged driver, but not as much if I considered myself "just a passenger" in an autonomous vehicle. It looks like barely more than 30s elapses there.

View on HN

I'm not sure I would have done anything different than the computer did. I'm a cautious driver and have been in similar situations where I felt it was prudent to take a moment and really try to see past the truck to look for any oncoming traffic. I've then had an impatient driver behind me decide to zoom around.

This is a good point, I'd want my car to be more like you than me, where I'm the guy impatiently going around people who hesitate for too long.

Just because it took it's time to navigate the problem it doesn't mean the decision was wrong. If you're in a rush you could easily take over the auto-drive feature. But otherwise let it auto drive in cautious mode for 99% of the time.

I used to be the type of driver who would impatiently zoom around, until one day I noticed several deer beginning to cross the freeway. I slammed on my brakes, but the driver behind me honked and swerved around me and, at over 80mph, took two of the deer with him. He left the scene in an ambulance and his car went to the scrapyard on a flatbed. No one ever told me what happened to the man, but while we were waiting for the ambulance and while he was being loaded, I never saw him even wiggle a toe or blink an eye. He was breathing but completely unresponsive. I don't know if he survived or not.

It's moments like that one that can change your outlook on life in an instant. That was four years ago and I haven't intentionally broken the speed limit since then. Even if it means other impatient drivers are zooming around me. I have, however, been rear-ended twice since then.

> Even if it means other impatient drivers are zooming around me. I have, however, been rear-ended twice since then.

Wait, so you already saw someone be seriously injured, and since then, you've caused two other accidents (which are a danger to you too), and you're still going with "I'll drive the speed limit and not drive with the flow of traffic?"

smh

Drive with the flow of traffic: save lives.

That's a bold assumption about his accidents being his fault. Maybe he was rear ended at a light when fully stopped. And even if he was going slower than traffic, it's still the other driver's job not to hit other cars.

It's possible to increase accidents and save lives at the same time. If the average speed of accidents is greatly reduced, that could save lives.

The first time I got rear-ended I was coming to a stop at a red light, the second time I was in the left-turn lane and came to a complete stop at the blinking red light. At no time was there any "flow of traffic" to speak of. The only way I caused those accidents was by not zooming through the light that was changing to red and not driving into the middle of the intersection on a blinking red light.

It's not my fault other drivers don't expect me to follow the law.

> I used to be the type of driver who would impatiently zoom around

I've never been a very aggressive driver, but I've dialed it back even more when I noticed I'd generally meet the people who overtook me in a huff a few miles down the line. Shit's not worth the stress or the fuel burn.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com