Earlier quoted context omitted.
1: e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking#Origin_of_the_term 2: Roads are also for bicyclists, motorcyclists, and even pedestrians. It's true though that car drivers often think that roads are a car only domain and behave aggressively towards the other mentioned groups
2. No, sidewalks and bike lanes are for pedestrians and bicyclists. Bike lanes are less common than sidewalks so I think it's reasonable to include them on low-speed/highly congested stretches of road, but to assume they should have a full access to, e.g. and interstate or highway is ridiculous and would hinder literally thousands of people.
San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
231–240 of 504 posts
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily, if you make your intentions clear, e.g. by slowing down and putting your hazards on.
Well, most of the time. If the cop feels like it, they can make you have a very bad time. https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/7645474002 “An Arkansas woman says she had no safe place to pull over in July 2020 when a state trooper tried to stop her for speeding, so she turned on her hazard lights and slowed down. Moments later, the officer rammed her vehicle, causing it to flip over and injuring the woman”
When the officer arrived at the window, he did question why I didn't stop at the original spot. After explaining, he said he appreciated the thought. I still received the ticket.
Point of the story? Not every LEO is an asshole.
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#233Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the country, but here teenagers are drilled so much during their L phase and on the cars with a manual transmission, so they are probably the safest drivers on the road.
The teenager's ability to drive safely isn't just a mechanical ability of driving a car or of just being aware of the laws/rules. Safe driving comes from years of experience on being able to decide how long it will take to stop at certain speeds in certain conditions. Being able to recognize their car's brakes are a little soft and might not stop on a dime any more. Being able to recognize that the driver in front of…
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, most of the time. If the cop feels like it, they can make you have a very bad time. https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/7645474002 “An Arkansas woman says she had no safe place to pull over in July 2020 when a state trooper tried to stop her for speeding, so she turned on her hazard lights and slowed down. Moments later, the officer rammed her vehicle, causing it to flip over and injuring the woman”
de-amped URL: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/10/arkans... I thought that Google was supposed to stop the AMP project? can't they automatically redirect old AMP URLs to the correct real URL?
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
I generally am in agreement. However there's a complication in my mind. My dad was a police officer and I grew up around police. It's there's one thing to know about police, it is that they are human, and subject to all the emotions, inconsistencies, and foibles as other humans. However, they are given an extraordinary amount of power, with very little accountability. Think about what it would take for a regular pers…
Alright but again, the anecdote of "This one time in Arkansas" can't reasonably be used as a justification for stating "All police are bad and out of control all over the country"
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
A hardware failure that puts the vehicle in a semi-functioning, but non-safe condition needs to be investigated, it could be silently lurking in any number of cars.
Investigated, yes. Grounding the whole fleet? Not necessarily. It's a cost-benefit trade-off. We don't ground the whole fleet of human drivers, when one of them crashes their car, because the benefit doesn't outweigh the costs. It's not a given that the answer will change that much for self-driving cars. Especially for extremely rare failure modes.
We exist on a spectrum of competence. If a type of car has a widespread issue that unexpectedly gets it into a state where a minimally competent non-impaired person can't operate it safely, that type of car should be pulled from the road. However, because humans are so sloppy (0 human drivers should be the ultimate goal), it is generally assumed that most accidents are caused by us, and so we require a significant accumulation of evidence to take a type of car off the road. Without a human in the loop, what's the unreliable part to point the finger at?
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#238Being used to riding motorcycles in the US, why are headlights not always on for all vehicles at this point? LED bulbs last a very long time and there is little reason to not have them on during the day. I know, it’s much more fun to anthropomorphize the car in this case, but the simple solution is to just hard wire them.
The simple rule of "always have your lights on" fixes that and it slightly improves visibility even in broad daylight. The only downside would be the increased power usage and the light bulb wearing out sooner. A minor issue a few decades ago when this became normal and a very minor one now that we have LEDs that last a long time without using a lot of power.
My rental bike (a Swapfiets) has the LEDs permanently on; there is no off switch. If you ride it, the lights are on. That's indeed how it should be. I can't think of any good reason to voluntarily reduce my visibility while cycling through potentially lethal traffic.
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the country, but here teenagers are drilled so much during their L phase and on the cars with a manual transmission, so they are probably the safest drivers on the road.
The teenager's ability to drive safely isn't just a mechanical ability of driving a car or of just being aware of the laws/rules. Safe driving comes from years of experience on being able to decide how long it will take to stop at certain speeds in certain conditions. Being able to recognize their car's brakes are a little soft and might not stop on a dime any more. Being able to recognize that the driver in front of…
Why would you assume that a driver's education is a matter of book learning? Is that how you were taught?
Re: San Francisco cops pull over a Cruise driverless car for no lights on
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't doubt your experience but let's not pretend that there haven't been any changes in the past 2 decades.
What makes you so sure? Even if there's data showing improvement, this would be data from a supremely untrustworthy source with a long history of manipulation and deception.