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Comment by Gigachad | Hacker News Reader

The human brain was not designed for a task which requires hours of siting down doing mostly nothing while being hyperfocused the entire time ready to take over in an instant on the rare occasion something happens. While running or cycling your brain is actively engaged keeping yourself upright and avoiding obstacles which keeps you alert.

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Seems at least somewhat comparable to walking through a forest full of predators, while, say, hunting/gathering.

Evidence that is is compatible with our psyche is the fact that we're at 1.19 fatalities per 100 million miles driven, and ~50% of those being booze and/or speeding.

That's true. Humans are bad at this task. On the railways they have a problem with this too, "Lookout" seems like a ludicrously easy job, but it's basically impossible because you must pay attention to an incredibly boring thing for hours or your friends might die. Getting rid of human lookouts should be a priority but it feels easy and so it's hard to motivate this.

This is also a big challenge for airline pilots. The planes mostly fly themselves these days, and most takeoffs and landings are uneventful. Being an airline pilot involves an absolutely massive amount of business as usual and preparation, for the very rare times something happens and you suddenly need a team of very focused experts to solve a difficult problem in a stressful environment.

At least they have simulators. Last time I saw a driving simulator I was a teenager.

Imagine you had to pass a simulator test involving responding to ANY crisis while driving before your license would be renewed. Rates of driving would plummet.

I bet most drivers don’t even correctly handle a flat tire on the expressway.

This does work for some people, I'm not one of them. My mind will start to get bored, wander off and I get super sleepy when driving.

But I do have a friend who will just go on a drive with no destination to relax, sometimes taking like an hour a two to get to work on purpose (a 30 minute drive) just to wind down.

> The human brain was not designed for a task which requires hours of siting down doing mostly nothing while […]

The average one-way commute time in the US is less than half an hour:

* https://www.census.gov/topics/employment/commuting/guidance/...

If you can't pay attention for less than 30 minutes should you really be operating a multi-ton death machine?

Their point is that a “driver take over autonomous” mode is useless because nobody would pay attention to their surroundings at all.

The average person can't last even the length of an elevator trip without reaching for social media.

I disagree. The human brain reinforces circuitry that is used often, meaning the human brain is generally quite adaptable. Ancient (and modern) hunters sit still and silent for hours waiting for game, with their brains ready to take over in an instant on the rare occasion something happens.

Right but you don't get in car accidents or near-accidents often. Ergo your brain becomes wired for the 99.9999999% of driving that is completely uneventful.

Hunters are a self-selecting group of people who enjoy the activity you describe. If you don't like it or can't do it, you just don't do it.

Virtually every single adult in America has to drive, however, to live a functional life.

You are avoiding cars constantly when driving with a non-zero amount of traffic. Way more incidents than predators in the savanna while doing persistence hunting.

Not sure what you're arguing.

Your brain gets used to in-distribution events.

Car accidents (and the conditions that cause them) are out-of-distribution events.

It's that simple.

That’s not how the brain works. It is evolutionary adapted to stay alert for out of distribution events.

Correct, and by the time an out of distribution event happens in a car, you are milliseconds from collision (if that).

Most car accidents are effectively instantaneous. The fact your brain perks up as a bumper is coming through your side window is not very helpful.

I try to watch car crash dashcam videos once a month or so on Reddit or YouTube. I feel like it recalibrates my brain to be more aware of the things that could happen that are out on the tail end of the distribution, like you say.

That is interesting! Yeah I suspect that would help a ton.

Do you do this for the purpose of calibrating your brain? Or more just some morbid curiosity of yours? :D

Eh, I think it started out as morbid curiosity and then I noticed it changed how I drove. Seemed like a good idea to do deliberately.

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