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Comment by clort | Hacker News Reader

> you just have to trust that they're going to do their job of not hitting things in front of them, just as you are.

Thats a very human-centric viewpoint, understandably. A human driver can only see in one direction, and should be looking in the direction where things are happening the vast majority of the time. A self-driving car can see in all directions and in fact is looking in all directions at all times. Perhaps the rules will be updated at some point.

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No, it's not a human-centric viewpoint. It's a physics centric viewpoint. When one vehicle follows another, the rear vehicle is on a collision course.

Human drivers are required to be aware of vehicles in all directions at all times.

You only need to train one person to drive to realize there's a really huge gulf between the bare minimum you're legally mandated to do when driving and what you should do to make driving less dangerous and less frequently displeasurable.

> A human driver can only see in one direction

Cars have mirrors. Any halfway-decent drivers' education will teach you to regularly check them, especially when you're about to brake.

How can you simultaneously check all the mirrors at the same time while also not looking away from the front?

It doesn’t really matter what’s behind you. If there is a danger in front of you and you don’t brake, it’s your fault, if you hit the brakes and someone rear ends you, it’s their fault for not keeping a safe braking distance.

You’d never design your system to intentionally be at fault.

Safe breaking distance is 2 seconds of travel between two and the car in front of you. In my experience almost no one ever follows this guidance and therefore yes, the rear-ender is always at fault.

I’m imagining some kind of future system where self driving cars are constantly scanning for tailgating, and when it happens, the number plate is logged and the data sold to insurance companies so they can adjust for high risk drivers.

Modern traffic radars have enough spatial and velocity resolution to apply a tailgating measurement. There are existing speed camera systems that can detect and ticket vehicles for tailgating, after a manual review of video and telemetry data (often just a quick glance and mouse click from a police officer).

There are relatively few jurisdictions that have a concrete quantitative definition of tailgating. So it's not yet widespread, but law enforcement certainly has the option available now.

The future will be that California will pass a law that mandates that newly manufuctured cars cannot tailgate at all, just like the one pending to beep at you when speeding.

In all serousiness, eventually, driving will be removed from humans.

> A human driver can only see in one direction

And it's usually in the direction of their phone. Even while driving.

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