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Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

cnbc.com

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Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#51

Post by [deleted] »

vkjv wrote: post #41
jrockway wrote: post #16

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they like conservative driving. "I would have risked that left turn, so you should have too. The person with the green light would have slowed down to avoid an accident, probably, and I would have gotten to the next red light 10 seconds sooner!" You will also hear this when talking about less-capable drivers ("get off the road, grandma!") or less-capable vehicles ("I hate havi…

Every single time someone honks at me for this, I'm tempted to stay in place longer than necessary. Fortunately--most of the time--I think better of being this petty and passive aggressive.

[deleted]

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#53

Post by aeorgnoieang »

jellicle wrote: post #30
klodolph wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also wondering what part of this is due to them being programmed to follow the letter of the law, instead of driving like other drivers.

Has Google (or any other company) ever said "we are programming our cars to follow the letter of the law"? I don't believe so. This seems to be something that programmers and lazy reporters have inferred to be true, without evidence. For example, it is required in California to signal lane changes/turns for at least 100 feet before the maneuver. (Other states may have different requirements, so better hope your GPS i…

I'm pretty sure you're wrong about your example being legally impossible.

And you might be right that the robocar companies aren't trying to program their cars to drive strictly legally for every possible situation, it is in fact a reasonable presumption.

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#54

Post by kthejoker2 »

jstanley wrote: post #48
vkjv wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single time someone honks at me for this, I'm tempted to stay in place longer than necessary. Fortunately--most of the time--I think better of being this petty and passive aggressive.

If people are honking at you, are you sure you're being safe and not just being annoying ?

I find the vaaaast majority of honking is driven by impatience not any actual practical consideration (alerting others to your presence, trying to get someone's attention.)

Honking to provoke someone into taking risks you don't have to incur the consequences of yourself is mild sociopathy.

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#55

Post by WorldMaker »

GreaterFool wrote: post #23

US desperately needs self-driving cars. Desperately. I don't think most people realize how much. Because they've never seen a city with good public transport where most people don't own or care about cars. But achieving good public transport in US is impossible for cultural reasons. So there's no public transport so most expensive areas will fight to the death to keep population density low. Because more people means…

If self-driving cars were an adequate solution to public transportation we'd have solved this with taxi dispatch algorithms or smart bus route planning a century ago (and let's face that this is exactly what the auto industry encouraged most American cities to do, when most of America dismantled trolleys/passenger train travel/elevated trains). Self-driving cars are just the current distraction from solving real public transportation.

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#56

Post by Meekro »

I've been in situations where I'm waiting to make a tricky left turn safely while people behind me literally yell at me to go faster. Now those same people have to contend with cars that can't be intimidated into making risky turns by the driver behind them yelling, honking, or tailgating. I hope it plays out like this:

1. Driver tailgates at an intersection or stop sign to try to intimidate the driverless car in front of him into going faster.

2. Driverless car ignores it, and gets rear-ended.

3. Google helpfully provides the tailgater's insurance company with a copy of the 360 degree video, conclusively proving his guilt under law.

4. Tailgater's insurance rates skyrocket after his insurer is forced to pay the maximum to repair the expensive driverless car.

5. Tailgater is forced to stop being a jackass.

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#57

Post by umvi »

jstanley wrote: post #48
vkjv wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single time someone honks at me for this, I'm tempted to stay in place longer than necessary. Fortunately--most of the time--I think better of being this petty and passive aggressive.

If people are honking at you, are you sure you're being safe and not just being annoying ?

Some people are very timid at things like left turns and roundabout entry because they are not confident in their judgment of oncoming car speed, etc. (mostly Americans on that second one; Europeans seem generally seem comfortable entering roundabouts).

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#58

Post by kthejoker2 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #49
zamalek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who attempts to follow the letter of the law, I experience quite a few incidents of aggressive driving. The complaints here are really just demonstrating how bad humans are at driving - the frustration probably arises due to the fact that they are unable to intimidate the driver in front of them with aggressive behavior. > One woman said that she almost hit one of the company's minivans because it suddenly…

Why do you attempt to follow the letter of the law? Not even traffic officers follow the letter of the law; it's rare to get pulled over for going 60mph in a 55mph zone, for example. Do you ever find yourself on a road getting passed by all the other cars? Isn't that annoying? Why not just speed up a few mph and join the herd? I'm honestly asking; I just do not get the appeal.

If I planned my trip accordingly, I find few reasons to arrive somewhere too early. You just enter into hurry up and wait mode.

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#59

Post by cgriswald »

umvi wrote: post #39
snowwrestler wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a result, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people from 8-24. "As a result" is a pretty big stretch. Traffic accidents result from unexpected situations. People who drive a lot learn to read the environment and the drivers around them and anticipate what will happen next. When those anticipations are violated, it runs the risk of creating a surprise that can't be managed. That is just as true…

> That is just as true for a violation in the conservative direction as in the aggressive direction. I've been caught by surprise before when a conservative driver slammed on their brakes when the light turned yellow even though there was ample time for both of us to coast through the light. Instead, I nearly rear-ended them.

> I've been caught by surprise before when a conservative driver slammed on their brakes when the light turned yellow even though there was ample time for both of us to coast through the light.

I witnessed an accident where a tiny little compact slammed on his brakes the second a light turned yellow. Unfortunately, he was being followed by a large SUV. The SUV hit him and pushed him into the intersection.[0] The very next day, at the very same intersection, I saw the now dented compact do the very same thing under the very same circumstances. He had learned nothing.

[0]To make matters worse, he left his perfectly drivable car in the middle of the intersection instead of pulling ahead. He got out of his car, made a phone call, and just stood there in the intersection having a conversation (with police or insurance I would assume), endangering himself and others.

Re: Locals reportedly frustrated with Waymo's self-driving cars

#60

Post by sgift »

umvi wrote: post #39
snowwrestler wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a result, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people from 8-24. "As a result" is a pretty big stretch. Traffic accidents result from unexpected situations. People who drive a lot learn to read the environment and the drivers around them and anticipate what will happen next. When those anticipations are violated, it runs the risk of creating a surprise that can't be managed. That is just as true…

> That is just as true for a violation in the conservative direction as in the aggressive direction. I've been caught by surprise before when a conservative driver slammed on their brakes when the light turned yellow even though there was ample time for both of us to coast through the light. Instead, I nearly rear-ended them.

So, you nearly rear-ended someone because you didn't hold proper distance? What's your point?
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