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Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

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Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#221

Post by goshx »

beat wrote: post #210

Yesterday, I was saying that autopiloted trucks would take over the long-haul trucking industries. This is why . Driver errors with semis on the highway kill thousands every year. This kind of technology will save lives - not just of the Tesla drivers (or other autopiloted drivers), but of the vehicles they don't hit.

My car, with myself and a friend inside, almost got ran over by a truck when the driver didn't even bother to slow down for the yellow light and crossed at high speed the red light. Luckily he didn't hit anyone.

I totally agree with you.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#222

Post by dragonwriter »

beat wrote: post #210

Yesterday, I was saying that autopiloted trucks would take over the long-haul trucking industries. This is why . Driver errors with semis on the highway kill thousands every year. This kind of technology will save lives - not just of the Tesla drivers (or other autopiloted drivers), but of the vehicles they don't hit.

Autopilot would take over trucking even if it was no safer than humans under the current safety regime applied to human drivers, simply because it could drive nearly 24/7 without degradation, improving asset utilization.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#223

Post by GavinMcG »

mikeash wrote: post #211
GavinMcG wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may very well reflect reality, but you also point out that it might not. Would it be better, therefore, not to post the claim in the first place? (I'm not trying to accuse you of doing something wrong. This is just a minimal, relatively harmless example of a larger and more concerning phenomenon in this age of information spreading so quickly with so little verification. I suspect we're going to need to take a s…

It may well be better not to post the claim, but you also seem to accept that it may be. Would it be better, therefore, not to post your claim in the first place? (Personally, I see nothing wrong with posting anecdotal evidence as long as it's clearly identified as such.)

I was asking a question, not making a claim. Though I obviously made it clear what I think the answer likely is, I'm genuinely interested in the thoughts others can contribute. I'm not sure what the snarky response contributes, though.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#224

Post by Tloewald »

dragonwriter wrote: post #222
beat wrote: post #210

Yesterday, I was saying that autopiloted trucks would take over the long-haul trucking industries. This is why . Driver errors with semis on the highway kill thousands every year. This kind of technology will save lives - not just of the Tesla drivers (or other autopiloted drivers), but of the vehicles they don't hit.

Autopilot would take over trucking even if it was no safer than humans under the current safety regime applied to human drivers, simply because it could drive nearly 24/7 without degradation, improving asset utilization.

I think you underestimate the ability of the trucking industry to poorly maintain automatic pilot systems.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#225

Post by mikeash »

GavinMcG wrote: post #223
mikeash wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may well be better not to post the claim, but you also seem to accept that it may be. Would it be better, therefore, not to post your claim in the first place? (Personally, I see nothing wrong with posting anecdotal evidence as long as it's clearly identified as such.)

I was asking a question, not making a claim. Though I obviously made it clear what I think the answer likely is, I'm genuinely interested in the thoughts others can contribute. I'm not sure what the snarky response contributes, though.

I'm just illustrating that you're doing the same thing you're advocating against, so it's rather self-defeating. If this sort of vague, personal thinking is OK, then your post is pointless. If it's not, then your post is bad. Either way, it doesn't make any sense.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#226

Post by rhino369 »

Etheryte wrote: post #68
merraksh wrote: post #66

What puzzles me here is that the SUV flips over after being hit in the right-rear corner by a relatively small car and bumping into the side barrier. Flipping over in a case like this looks more likely to happen to an SUV than a lower-centered car, and makes me question the safety of SUVs.

This is a commonly known problem of SUVs, their center of gravity is a lot higher so they're a lot easier to flip over. That's why I'm puzzled by people who buy urban SUVs, that is, jeep-like cars that they never intend to use off-road.

They flip over easier but they are more heavy, which is safer in crashes. In a head to head crash between a car and an SUV, the SUV is significantly safer. I believe SUV's have lower fatalities per mile driven.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#227

Post by seletz »

Infernal wrote: post #207
sytelus wrote: post #67

This is great video to study on many levels beyond self-driving car. Some observations: * The car behind didn't show turn signal so probably driver wasn't paying attention. * A small car escaping with not too much damage while SUV rolls over many times * From physics point of view, the car behind produced almost perfect torque that started horizontal spin on SUV * Collisions with barrier at high speed can produce lot…

I'm not sure what you mean by "the car behind didn't show turn signal". If you're referring to the pink hatchback that ultimately rear-ended the SUV - the pink hatchback seems to be making a lane change to the right after passing. The driver seems to have signaled and looked to the right to clear his/her blindspot at the same moment the SUV ahead slams on the brakes. It really seems like bad luck, that traffic would…

Well no -- that wasn't bad luck at all. He simply was way too close for the speed.

Back in the day when I got my driver's license we were told to have 3 seconds of distance. One second to react one second to brake and one second for safety, if I remember correctly.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#228

Post by badwolf »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #218
Infernal wrote: post #205

I think this accident could've been entirely avoided had the small pink hatchback been a Tesla. My read on what happened here is that the pink car was making a passing maneuver, and just as the pink car driver checked their right-side mirror/blind-spot and hit the right turn signal to get out of the passing lane, the car ahead abruptly stopped. That explains why the pink car drifted so slowly to the right - it wasn't…

A safer following distance is crucial too, fwiw. It honestly feels like 90% of the vehicles on the highway travel at insanely close distances to each other.

My mom got in an accident due to driving too close to the car in front of her. It caused me to really take heart to my Driver's Ed teachers word of wisdom to always leave enough space in front of you to be able to safely brake to prevent that. I wish everyone would do that. It also makes driving in traffic less stop-and-go

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#229

Post by lb1lf »

Infernal wrote: post #207
sytelus wrote: post #67

This is great video to study on many levels beyond self-driving car. Some observations: * The car behind didn't show turn signal so probably driver wasn't paying attention. * A small car escaping with not too much damage while SUV rolls over many times * From physics point of view, the car behind produced almost perfect torque that started horizontal spin on SUV * Collisions with barrier at high speed can produce lot…

I'm not sure what you mean by "the car behind didn't show turn signal". If you're referring to the pink hatchback that ultimately rear-ended the SUV - the pink hatchback seems to be making a lane change to the right after passing. The driver seems to have signaled and looked to the right to clear his/her blindspot at the same moment the SUV ahead slams on the brakes. It really seems like bad luck, that traffic would…

> It really seems like bad luck, that traffic would suddenly stop at the exact moment the driver of the pink hatchback looks to the right to change lanes.

-Pet peeve of mine: "Bad luck" is incredibly rare in traffic. This accident occurred because the hatchback was too close to the car in front of it; not because of bad luck.

Re: Tesla footage of braking before crash ahead [video]

#230

Post by Tloewald »

sytelus wrote: post #67

This is great video to study on many levels beyond self-driving car. Some observations: * The car behind didn't show turn signal so probably driver wasn't paying attention. * A small car escaping with not too much damage while SUV rolls over many times * From physics point of view, the car behind produced almost perfect torque that started horizontal spin on SUV * Collisions with barrier at high speed can produce lot…

The SUV was pushed into the crash barrier and small car wasn't, so it's a highly unfair comparison.

We did a lot of safety research before buying our current round of cars, and you need to not generalize about cars based on classifications like "SUV". Look at actual data from actual cars on actual roads, e.g.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/driver-death-rates

Note that you can find vehicles like the Honda Pilot that are enormously popular and have in effect ZERO fatalities. What's horribly unsafe to everyone is passenger cars built on truck frames.

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