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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]

#331

Post by marcosdumay »

jdavis703 wrote: post #301
loeg wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Icy conditions are maybe predictable (ok, it's under 0°C outside), but yellow light times (edit: the time between the light turning yellow and the light turning red) are not.

Yellow light turns are predictable in that you know that they'll happen, just not when. So if you have a heavy load or other adverse conditions you should slow down to a speed where you could stop at the correct distance. Software should do an even better job of predicting the weight to speed to stopping distance ratios.

What is a safe speed to drive when you take into account that the yellow light may last from less than a second to 20 seconds?

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

#332

Post by GavinMcG »

mikeash wrote: post #285
GavinMcG wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a deep difference between a conversation inviting disagreement and those with solid evidence to step in, and a strident claim that will only be addressed and corrected by people who are willing to be confrontational.

I agree, but how is that relevant? I only see the first kind here.

Go back and take a gander at the question mark in the comment you're criticizing, and the lack of one in the comment I'm addressing.

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

#333

Post by marcosdumay »

devy wrote: post #182
79d697i6fdif wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest thing I noticed was just how easily SUV's flip over. This has been a problem forever I'm just surprised that regulators don't take more notice of it. Rollovers are far more likely to result in injury or death. Most cars just don't flip, all the traction their tires have is simply not enough to do it on flat ground. Yeah anything could flip over once you go off the road but the SUV in this looks like a rol…

That also depends on the momentum (weight ratio, impact speed angle, etc.) The lesser the weight, the worst off during impact - we've seen that too often in NHTSA crash tests.

Flipping depends entirely on geometry. SUVs have high suspension, have a lot of weight at their top, and have an overall higher height to width ratio. Also, their aerodynamics do not push as much down as on lower cars.

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

#334

Post by geocar »

millettjon wrote: post #302
geocar wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK driving test is significantly more rigorous than the US, and it shows: UK drivers are amongst the safest in the world (2nd lowest road fatalities per 100k people; top five per 100k vehicles). The US isn't even in the top fifty (and for calibration to the American reader: Canada is in the top 30, but hey, at least the US beats out Mexico). At the end of the UK practical examination process I would expect all ne…

Does your source account for number of miles driven per capita?

In road fatalities per bn-vehicle-km[1], UK is second, while US is 17th.

[1]: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/transport/road-safety-annual-re...

We get road fatalities per person and per vehicle from[2]

[2]: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_st...

If we take them together:

    i  name           p÷v       *v/km 
    ------------------------------------
    1  Israel         0.371134  1.96701
    2  United Kingdom 0.5686275 2.047059
    3  Sweden         0.5957447 2.085106
    4  Denmark        0.5223881 2.089552
    5  Ireland        0.5394737 2.103947
    6  Netherlands    0.5666667 2.55
    7  Switzerland    0.7021277 3.019149
    8  Germany        0.6323529 3.098529
    9  Norway         0.7307692 3.215385
    10 Iceland        0.7540984 3.544262
    11 Australia      0.739726  3.846575
    12 France         0.6710526 3.892105
    13 Canada         0.6315789 3.915789
    14 Austria        0.7605634 4.411268
    15 Belgium        0.6261682 4.571028
    16 New Zealand    0.7142857 4.785714
    17 Slovenia       0.6736842 5.12
    18 Finland        1.090909  5.236364
    19 Spain          0.6981132 5.445283
    20 Japan          0.7230769 5.784615
    21 United States  0.8217054 5.834109
    22 South Korea    0.4482759 8.158621
    23 Czech Republic 0.7176471 9.975294
    24 Malaysia       0.8026756 10.11371
    25 Brazil         0.4652087 26.00517

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

#335

Post by marcosdumay »

sangnoir wrote: post #314
thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah i try to do that but then other cars just merge in between the space i leave in front of me and force me to be on their tail. meanwhile the guy behind me never leaves enough distance either. safe driving doesn't mean anything when others drive recklessly

> yeah i try to do that but then other cars just merge in between the space i leave in front of me and force me to be on their tail. Which is perfectly fine - it's safer that way. Not wanting to feel like a 'loser' is understandable - but when it is life and limb that's on the line; I know which side I'd rather be. On the other side is road rage and stupid games of chicken with your life on the line.

How is it safe? You now have almost no distance from the car on your front, and it is almost certainly slower than you.

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

#336

Post by mikeash »

GavinMcG wrote: post #332
mikeash wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but how is that relevant? I only see the first kind here.

Go back and take a gander at the question mark in the comment you're criticizing, and the lack of one in the comment I'm addressing.

Are you thinking I said your comment is a strident claim that requires confrontation to disagree with? I said the opposite: both your comment and the one you originally replied to are conversational and easily amenable to contrary views.

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

#337

Post by marcosdumay »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #70
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.

Is the assumption here (flipping over = very bad) correct? Is it possible that [edit: the force] can dissipate more easily if it flips (provided the car is built correctly to withstand the force of a flip)? NB: I know nothing about this topic, genuinely curious to hear from someone who does.

Modern cars are incredibly goo at absorbing shock from the front and rear directions. They are much worse on any other direction, wether it is lateral or vertical. The flipping means everybody in the car had a huge shock the first time it felt, probably worse than anything people suffered on the other car.

Flipping also does not help stopping faster (in case there's something dangerous ahead). Instead, the faster way to break is by using the wheels just like the car is designed to do.

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

#338

Post by marcosdumay »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #116
disposablezero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relying on error-prone, distracted, slow humans to guide massive killing machines is playing Russian roulette. AI driving will no doubt be eventually better than the best human driver within a decade, in nearly all instances.

The glorification of tech/denigration of humans juxtaposition is getting old fast. This attitude may seem benign, but it's insidious, carries a hint of elitism, and spills over into labor, class, and other aspects of human life. Why can't we appreciate tech advances without devaluing people?

Humans weren't built to drive. We can't support our attention during an entire trip, we can't deal with several variables at the same time, and we have all those emotional heuristics that are completely counterproductive when driving.

That's stating the obvious, not devaluing people.

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

#339

Post by marcosdumay »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #313
swasheck wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nice sci-fi trope is that the unpredictability of humanity, and when/how it will "fail" when something better would "succeed", results in the preservation of humanity itself. It's nice to consider in the wake of the elitism.

Well, I think there's something to the notion that there is value in humanity, in spite of--or perhaps even because of--its flaws and non-binary approach to the Universe. And, of course, there's the whole "I Robot" deal, wherein the robot elects to save the life of the adult vs. the child based purely on a sterile odds-of-survival calculation. That's not really what I had in mind with my comments here, but it is an i…

> Well, I think there's something to the notion that there is value in humanity, in spite of--or perhaps even because of--its flaws and non-binary approach to the Universe.

We are approaching a very scary time when this conjecture will be subject to cold empirical evaluation.

I think we'll pass the test. But wishing that humans were good on things we aren't do not help anybody.

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

#340

Post by tomohawk »

kevin42 wrote: post #255
elif wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know your situation, but my experience driving big heavy stuff is that sometimes a yellow light does not provide enough warning to stop 55mph * crazy weight, and you sometimes find yourself with a dilemma of entering an intersection just after a light has changed, or a few seconds after the light has changed.

It sounds to me like the driver shouldn't be going 55mph in the first place, if they can't stop before the yellow light turns red. It's similar to icy roads. If you go the normal speed limit and you slide into another car, it's your fault. The fact that the speed limit was higher than your speed doesn't release the driver from responsibility.

In my state, the minimum yellow light length is 4 seconds, but it's obviously not uniformly applied. You can get a device to time the yellow lights from the state if you get a ticket, and then use that info to dispute it. Not much help if there is an accident.

It's a big enough problem that there's a group trying to do something about it.

http://shortyellowlights.com/standards/

EDIT: according to the link, the yellow light for a 55 mph road should last 6 seconds.

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