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Comment by zxcvbn4038 | Hacker News Reader

I predict this would lead to “road trolling” which would probably end up causing more road rage. A better solution, without giving up privacy, might be a social system of flagging people for unsafe driving, aggressive driving, etc. Set the threshold really high. You don’t want to take action against the old lady who inconvenienced everyone by breaking down in a turn lane one day, you want the ones who day after day get flagged. I imagine everyone would drive a lot nicer if there were consequences to aggressive driving. Just like everyone wants to play nice suddenly when the cops are around. Boldest speed demon in the world suddenly finds he can drive 55 after all.

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> A better solution, without giving up privacy, might be a social system of flagging people for unsafe driving, aggressive driving, etc. [...] I imagine everyone would drive a lot nicer if there were consequences to aggressive driving.

And what's the consequence if you got flagged? I find it disconcerting for the government to dole out punishments based on (what is essentially) downvotes from random people. How can you ensure those flagged people are getting due process?

There are several things that can be done without too harsh of consequences that it'd need a watertight due process.

First is positive reinforcement, let people "upvote" others for good driving etiquette, then give the top 0.1% or whatever a special decal to display on their plate, or a special plate. Fakes are enforced by when, if you're ever pulled over, the officer looks up whether you were entitled to that decal and then a hefty fine if you faked it. Or maybe even officers just randomly noting down the plates to later check if it was legit, can even enforce it via existing traffic rules enforcement cameras and in both cases, fines are imposed like redlight cameras do now. Maybe even allow the driver to share the designation with their insurance company which may decide to reduce their rates.

Another way would be to send some nastygrams via snail mail to the worst 1% or so, "you were voted the worst 1% of drivers by your peers". However without any other negative consequences, this might be gamed i.e "I'm so badass that I got this letter", leading to some people trying to get those letters. Since the tagging is by car, maybe give access to the insurance companies to the very worst offending cars to raise the rates for insurance on that _car_, not the driver associated with it, since someone else could be driving it.

Nice, so then we need a social score for drivers similar to the chinese model, if you will?

Sort of like Black Mirror S3E1? Or China's social credit system?

If the signs are a fixed set (like emoji) trolling can be avoided.

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