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Comment by Shivetya | Hacker News Reader

It is one safety tip you learn when riding motorcycles, however in the realm of self driving cars not only would the face be an interesting item to track but what about hand motions like when people wave you through out of turn?

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People who bend the rules like that are a problem to be fixed, not one to be accomodated. I would train the self driving cars to wait until the appropriate conditions are met, and if that means until that person stops waving and continues appropriately, all the better. Road rules are as much about predictability as they are about safety. As long as you can predict another road user will behave a certain way, you can ensure that you can navigate a situation safely without further communication. The moment they start to bend the rules, they introduce uncertainty into the system, which increases the need for communication and the likelihood of mistakes.

This is a fairly fundamental difference between how machines operate and how people operate. People can evaluate and communicate, and it is very inhuman to sit at the intersection with your blinker on while the person who has right of way is frantically waving you on because of some reason. And while you would fail your driving test if you did accept permission to proceed, the reality is it is known and accepted and expected that people will adjust in more normal situations. To the point I recall being explicitly warned of this exact situation before taking my test. And I recall that because it actually happened during my exam, and I was amused at the uncomfortable feelings as I kept my hands on the wheel and ignored the adult giving the young novice permission to go while they rummaged in their glove compartment.

I do agree that self driving cars should wait until appropriate conditions are met, because they can't make rational decisions. I think while there are mixed self-driving and human driven cars on the road, there will need to be some sort of visible differentiation for cars running in autonomous mode, because they are never going to react the same as humans unless we teach them to react as badly as humans ;)

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