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Comment by nostrademons | Hacker News Reader

In my example (jaywalker) they stopped and waited for the pedestrian to cross the street.

The pause times do seem longer than a human would take (I noticed this with the right-turn with pedestrian case as well), but I'd rather that self-driving cars err on the side of safe rather than sorry.

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Agreed, endgame (all cars self driving) it's gonna be better. But when there's a mix on the road, I imagine a lot of awkwardness. I feel like they should throw a little LCD panel on each side of the car so it can just display a message like "yielding to pedestrian" or whatever.

Mercedes has spent some thought on this. They propose having LEDs in the front of the car that colour where it sees pedestrians, so you know if you've been seen.

Imagine the lawsuits when someone relies on what they saw on the panel and an accident ensues.

This is why we can't have nice things.

1. "Jaywalker" ("crazy walker") is a slur invented by the auto industry to remove the civil rights of humans not in cars.

2. Your example doesn't even seem to meet the slur's definition.

I am not sure why you got downvoted for stating a fact. About the automotive industry's aggressive lobbying to gain control of the streets in the 1920s, see here for instance: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26073797

> I am not sure why you got downvoted for stating a fact.

Personally, I downvoted it for the "civil rights" phrase. It is unnecessary, hyperbolic, and inflammatory; these discussions tend to attract such comments and they derail rational discussion.

1. 100 years ago yes, but at this point the term is in common use.

What's considered jaywalking (crossing a street where there is no crosswalk) in USA is usually legal in other countries. In Netherlands I can cross the street almost anywhere I want, except if I'm too close to a real crossing.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking#Safety_consideratio... for the various unique instances.

In some cities in the USA, Jay walking is also waking across a crosswalk when you don't have the walk signal. Is this a ticketable offense in the Netherlands?

FYI the definition of jaywalker is "a reckless pedestrian who crosses a street illegally". This sounds legal.

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