> Human drivers sometimes fail-to-notice sirens or other high-priority demands on road capacity.
In the lane directly in front of them, facing them, and honking?
In the lane directly in front of them, facing them, and honking?
Yes! In SF and other big free-country cities at 4am, some human drivers are high!
Sometimes human drivers are passed-out or suffering a health crisis. Sometimes they've left their vehicles blocking key rights-of-way as they go somewher else for many minutes.
In San Francisco, I've seen human-driver-unattended cars block light-rail trains many times. (I live not far from the N-Judah line, which also has a history of pedestrian bystanders physically moving cars to clear the road: https://www.munidiaries.com/2014/02/10/muni-riders-lift-car-...)
We need to judge autonomous car suboptimalities against real human drivers, with all their failures - not against idealized, unerring humans-at-their-best.
> On an early April morning, around 4 am, a San Francisco Fire Department truck responding to a fire tried to pass a doubled-parked garbage truck by using the opposing lane. But a traveling autonomous vehicle, operated by the General Motors subsidiary Cruise without anyone inside, was blocking its path.
I don't think it's intolerable to use a straw-man argument when discussing scarecrows.