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Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

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Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#121

Post by gambiting »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #93
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does the opposite. An always lit in vehicle display and DRLs that are just always on headlights makes people forget to turn their lights on when it's dark. This isn't a problem for them since they have their headlights on but drivers behind them don't see them from a distance at night because their tail lights are not lit up. This is particularly dangerous in traffic where everyone else has their lights on. Making…

I just always turn my headlights on when I start my car. It doesn't matter if it's day or night, or it'll get dark while I'm driving, or if it starts raining or I go through a tunnel. The lights are just always on. If everyone's car just did this automatically, the world would be a safer place. Why would you ever want the lights off?

Well, ask in countries which actually have that as law - Poland introduced it few years ago and the jury is still out on whether it made roads safer or not. I'd argue it didn't - mostly because as a driver your brain starts to associate lights = moving car. Which means that you start to ignore everything that doesn't have lights - bicycles, cars where someone forgot to turn the lights on. There were studies done on this and it's very inconclusive that it improves safety at all.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#122

Post by KozmoNau7 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #8

It sounds goofy, but this strikes me as really clever. Compared to almost anything else with self driving cars adding a few indicators to outwardly show what it's going to do next (for pedestrians and other drivers) is a huge win. There is a fair amount of waving for someone else to go first at a turn, seeing if a driver is distracted (on their phone) at a stop, making eye contact while using a cross walk etc that ge…

"waving for someone else to go first at a turn"

Ever since I heard of people getting blame for accidents, since they were effectively directing traffic (which only the police are allowed to do here), I've stopped waving people to go ahead and similar gestures, instead I'll give them space and wait for them to act of their own accord.

I've also stopped acting on other people's waves and gestures, I check for myself that everything is clear before I proceed.

Luckily I haven't witnessed an accident like this myself, but I know of people who've been T-boned on multi-lane streets because they were waved ahead by a guy in one lane, but someone came in another lane and couldn't see the turning car.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#123

Post by Sujan »

jedberg wrote: post #64

Off topic, but man do I hate looping gifs in my articles. It's so incredibly distracting. Sure, play it once, maybe even twice. But an endless loop? That's just unnecessary.

It's not even very good communication. As there often is no clear start and end, when I scroll to the gif I have to watch it at least 2 or 3 times until I really know what is going on, where the loop starts and where it ends. Simple video would be so much better.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#124

Post by kgwgk »

gambiting wrote: post #120
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #8

It sounds goofy, but this strikes me as really clever. Compared to almost anything else with self driving cars adding a few indicators to outwardly show what it's going to do next (for pedestrians and other drivers) is a huge win. There is a fair amount of waving for someone else to go first at a turn, seeing if a driver is distracted (on their phone) at a stop, making eye contact while using a cross walk etc that ge…

I don't mean to be offensive, but can someone please explain to me how the Stop signs work in US? Am I correct to understand that whoever arrived at the stop sign first goes first, regardless of where they are going? Is this considered a good system? In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs - put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the perso…

> In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs

Have you ever seen a 4-way stop in Europe?

I think what you try to explain is the rule for unmarked intersections.

> put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the person turning right has priority over someone turning left. Simple as that.

That wouldn't work very well when people go straight in different directions...

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#125

Post by Joe-Z »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #122
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #8

It sounds goofy, but this strikes me as really clever. Compared to almost anything else with self driving cars adding a few indicators to outwardly show what it's going to do next (for pedestrians and other drivers) is a huge win. There is a fair amount of waving for someone else to go first at a turn, seeing if a driver is distracted (on their phone) at a stop, making eye contact while using a cross walk etc that ge…

"waving for someone else to go first at a turn" Ever since I heard of people getting blame for accidents, since they were effectively directing traffic (which only the police are allowed to do here), I've stopped waving people to go ahead and similar gestures, instead I'll give them space and wait for them to act of their own accord. I've also stopped acting on other people's waves and gestures, I check for myself th…

This annoys me too most of the time. Being in traffic is not the time to play Mr. Friendly, it's the time to follow the rules and thus behave predictably for the other drivers.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#126

Post by gambiting »

kgwgk wrote: post #124
gambiting wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to be offensive, but can someone please explain to me how the Stop signs work in US? Am I correct to understand that whoever arrived at the stop sign first goes first, regardless of where they are going? Is this considered a good system? In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs - put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the perso…

> In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs Have you ever seen a 4-way stop in Europe? I think what you try to explain is the rule for unmarked intersections. > put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the person turning right has priority over someone turning left. Simple as that. That wouldn't work very well when people go straight in differ…

>>Have you ever seen a 4-way stop in Europe?

I have actually.

>>That wouldn't work very well when people go straight in different directions...

Yes, I forgot to mention the "right hand principle" - in this case, whoever is on your right has priority over you. So if you are going straight, and the guy to your right is going straight, he has priority. The only situation where it doesn't work and leads to a deadlock is if you have a 4-way(or 3 way) intersection with equal-priority roads and everyone wants to go straight. Then it sort of reverts to this "whoever goes first wins" strategy - but that's incredibly rare and seeing roads with equal priority meet in this fashion is unusual.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#127

Post by yorwba »

kgwgk wrote: post #124
gambiting wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to be offensive, but can someone please explain to me how the Stop signs work in US? Am I correct to understand that whoever arrived at the stop sign first goes first, regardless of where they are going? Is this considered a good system? In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs - put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the perso…

> In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs Have you ever seen a 4-way stop in Europe? I think what you try to explain is the rule for unmarked intersections. > put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the person turning right has priority over someone turning left. Simple as that. That wouldn't work very well when people go straight in differ…

> That wouldn't work very well when people go straight in different directions...

That was actually used in my parallel-programming course as the example of a deadlock caused by priority inversion. Of course it almost never happens that there are cars in all four directions at an intersection without traffic lights, so it isn't much of a problem in practice.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#128

Post by icc97 »

cpv wrote: post #114
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #8

It sounds goofy, but this strikes me as really clever. Compared to almost anything else with self driving cars adding a few indicators to outwardly show what it's going to do next (for pedestrians and other drivers) is a huge win. There is a fair amount of waving for someone else to go first at a turn, seeing if a driver is distracted (on their phone) at a stop, making eye contact while using a cross walk etc that ge…

I can't recall properly where I read it, but some time ago there was an idea to have stop signals also in front of the car, so the pedestrians would know if the driver/car is stopping. There are also pedestrians who can take into account if the car is turning (obviously by watching the turning lights). A self-driving car should have some reactions to people around it, so people could also respond properly to its acti…

That seems a marvelously simple idea!

People understand what brake lights are and it's relatively simple to see the car slowing down that corresponds with the lights. Then assuming the driver doesn't use the hand brake then it should be obvious that the car is starting again when the brake lights go out.

All this flickering of lights seems way too complex

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#129

Post by pluma »

kgwgk wrote: post #124
gambiting wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to be offensive, but can someone please explain to me how the Stop signs work in US? Am I correct to understand that whoever arrived at the stop sign first goes first, regardless of where they are going? Is this considered a good system? In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs - put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the perso…

> In EU you have strictly defined priority at stop signs Have you ever seen a 4-way stop in Europe? I think what you try to explain is the rule for unmarked intersections. > put simply, if you are going straight you have priority over someone turning, if you are turning, then the person turning right has priority over someone turning left. Simple as that. That wouldn't work very well when people go straight in differ…

(Disclosure: I learned how to drive in Germany, details may differ in other European countries, apart from the obvious mirroring when driving on the left)

The fallback rule for all situations is "yield to the right". If you're at an intersection with no signs or markings, you get to drive if there's no-one to the right of you.

This creates a deadlock when all roads are unmarked and there's a car on each of them at the exact same time but that almost never happens and can be resolved by slowly inching forward if the person to the right of you doesn't move and then exiting the crossing.

When entering from a road that has a solid line or a yield sign, you always have to yield to the traffic on the road you're merging into. A stop sign means you have to come to a full stop even if the road is empty and slowly approach until you can clearly see there's no traffic and only then merge (after yielding).

Most other rules follow from that.

I'm not sure what you mean by "4-way stop" but if there were a 4-way crossing with stop signs on all sides it would result in a deadlock and be resolved the same way. Except with the explicit restriction that everyone first has to come to a full stop and slowly move forward to determine the traffic situation.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#130

Post by icc97 »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #105
bostonvaulter2 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wanted front brake lights for cars, that way as a pedestrian (or other driver) you can tell if a car is actively stopping as it's approaching you.

As a cyclist, I sometimes see cars approaching crosswalks at a crawl, just creeping along at a few feet per second. I do that on my bike too, because I'm hoping the light will change before I have to come to a complete stop and put my foot down, but I have no idea why drivers do it, and it definitely doesn't feel safe crossing in front of a car like that.

Driverless cars won't do this... at least until we teach neutral networks frustration.
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