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Comment by jeffreportmill1 | Hacker News Reader

I have a theory that one-pedal driving also improves traffic conditions by reducing the over correction inherent to two pedals. In traffic we hit the accelerator when space opens up in front of us, then switch quickly to brakes when the brake lights in front go on. The switch lessens our ability for fine control and it's exacerbated by the inertia of deceleration, so we almost always over correct. This has a cumulative effect in following cars.

One pedal driving allows us fine motor control without a drastic switch. The regenerative braking also encourages us to not over-brake (you grow to love the idea that you are recapturing energy and avoiding wear on the pads).

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> reducing the over correction inherent to two pedals.

Leaving space in fronto of you and trying to keep a constant speed also reduces this effect, this is ironically most used in 3-pedal driving as otherwise you’ll need to go into first gear when hitting a complete stop.

> Leaving space in fronto of you and trying to keep a constant speed also reduces this effect

I would like to see some sources on that claim. Or some reasoning.

The thing is I live in one of the cities with the longest commute distances and I’ve spent a lot of time in stop and go traffic thinking about this exact thing. I used to think as you do. I would focus on a truck in the traffic far ahead of me and try to use it to maintain a constant speed at the average of the highway speed. in my experience it creates this laggy elastic effect that probably doesn’t help.

Recently I heard that you should try to maintain an equal distance between the car in front of you and the one behind you, and I think this actually works better (obviously this is my anecdotal experience)

Of course safety comes first always

It starts to work when there are a few others doing it too. All of the sudden, it’s like magic, traffic is suddenly moving and there so no annoying stopping and going.

There are for sure studies on this. I remember seeing one from Seattle specifically, but others as well.

Speeding up and slowing down causes an accordian effect that results in slower speeds for everyone. The time it takes to reduce speed or stop, then recover to a higher speed is higher than just cruising at a middle speed.

I drive a manual and I never hurry in my commute, at rush hour or when there’s some accident on the highway people get crazy, they look like ants on a kicked nest, i just try to drive at a constant speed, and most of the time it takes me almost the same time, compared with a reference vehicle, to get out of that craziness without any stress.

I agree with that. Save gas / energy as well. People accelerate, pass me, then slam on the brakes at the red light, where I catch up with them. Or the traffic is really packed in all lanes, but still moving. They accelerate, start tailgating the person in front, and then inevitably having to slam on their brakes.

The one pedal driving can be used with an IC car too in certain conditions, just leaving more room ahead.

One data point I've noticed is that when a line of cars is at a stop light on a downward hill - when the light turns green, the traffic starts moving quicker than on the same scenario on flat land or uphill.

When getting off the brake the cars are already rolling a little bit before the move to the accelerator pedal and the effect is compounding.

This shows that the small latencies do add up.

Regen also means cruise control works as it should, so no speeding tickets when you are going down a steep hill (and where the police aways seem to sit)

Don’t most modern cars, even ICE cars, both slow-down-to and speed-up-to the speed designated by cruise control? I know my Subaru does, and my old Audi did, and both of the two Ford Escapes I drive for work do.

My wife's 2015 Honda CRV will allow the car to exceed the cruise control's set speed by up to 5 mph before the CVT raises the engine speed to apply engine braking.

In my 2016 Subaru BRZ (manual transmission), cruise control would never apply brakes, so if the hill was steep enough that engine breaking was slowing the car, then it could potentially exceed the cruise speed. But it would need a nearly 10% grade to do that in 6th gear at 60 mph.

Anecdotally it seems like it decreases my reaction time in emergency braking situations as well. Had a cat run out in front of me, and in the time it took my foot to start hitting the brake I was already slowed enough to have avoided hitting it.

It also smooths traffic flow because people are no longer slamming on their brakes, possibly in reaction to brake lights in front of them; instead they're keeping more distance and driving more predictably (down hills, to stoplights)

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