Self-driving car without “murder pedestrian” mode will never move in Manhattan | Hacker News Reader

Self-driving car without “murder pedestrian” mode will never move in Manhattan

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8 pointstelotortium18 comments

Does the poster actually live in NYC? It's one of the few places where drivers are actually already intimidated by pedestrians. As soon as car traffic at a crossing slows down, jaywalkers take over despite their red light and pass through vehicles, especially in Midtown, where we outnumber drivers.

Pretty sure that is the point OP is making.

1. Self driving cars do not change the laws of physics. I would not walk in front of a car (self driving or otherwise) if I didn't reasonably expect it to stop in time and driver response time is only a small part of that.

2. Self driving cars are likely programmed to honor pedestrian crossings(in my experience few drivers do). This would inspire me to actually use said pedestrian crossings, helping regulate pedestrian traffic.

what about when the light changes but the crowd is still moving across the intersection and the only thing that stops them is oncoming traffic inching closer and smacking the horn?

self-driving cars will need to at least be able to rev their engine and blast the horn when it detects a green light and people in the way

what about when the light changes but cars keep turning right and you still can't cross till you jump in front.. I think we can come up with a million examples back and forth without getting anywhere.

In the end, moving through congested areas is a pain for everyone involved. Besides, most drivers are pedestrians at times and most pedestrians drive.. Self-driving cars may shift the status quo somewhat but we all have places to go and traffic will flow somehow. Be it slower than time on a Friday afternoon..

i think we agree. the city does not make any sense for self driving cars right now. But they will inevitably interact well before full integration due to popularity increasing outside of the cities. status quo will adapt a bit im sure, but throughput will probably be artificially lowered by pedestrian abuse until people start getting tickets.. which will probably happen

Inching forward and blasting the horn seems like a relatively simple functionality that could be programmed into a self driving car.

LOL. Go ahead. That will fix this problem _instantly_.

You obviously don't live in Boston.

Why? Are the laws of physics different in Boston?

For all intents and purposes; cars must stop instantly and there are lines on the road but nobody knows what they're for.

Totally an art project.

And stopping is optional if there's a slight gap between the gaggle or one seems a bit slow.

SDCs don’t have to work everywhere to be useful and/or revolutionary. Manhattan currently has many other obstacles, like weather, poor signage, and reckless drivers.

This person makes a good point, but it’s a bit like saying that colonizing Pluto will be impossible when everyone else is talking about colonizing Mars for now.

Turn one of the windshield sprayers on the hood around backwards. So it sprays in front of the car.

I love how the first suggestion in the Twitter thread is facial recognition for "repeat offenders" (people who walk in front of a car).

How quickly we seek to embrace the Orwellian. Or maybe they just like seeing people in masks?

Or maybe they are joking?

It's a rather obvious outcome. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8195712

If proximities are that closer then surely the answer is that it should be a pedestrian friendly zone.

I get what he’s trying to convey and mechanically he’s not wrong. But seems like a fundamentally wrong transport paradigm

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