[HN Gopher] Government investigation finds Tesla FSD engaged dur...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Government investigation finds Tesla FSD engaged during the Bay
       Bridge pileup
        
       Author : gibsonf1
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2023-01-21 19:07 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.notebookcheck.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.notebookcheck.net)
        
       | redox99 wrote:
       | > The accident in the Bay Bridge tunnel has occurred with Tesla's
       | Full Self-Driving Beta mode active indeed, just as the driver
       | claimed.
       | 
       | This is almost certainly false. This kind of highway uses
       | Autopilot, not FSD beta. In fact in the tweet that they show that
       | simulates that same drive you can see on the screen that it's
       | using Autopilot, not FSD beta.
        
         | gibsonf1 wrote:
         | Thats an interesting claim, that the highway would trigger use
         | of autopilot and not FSD. How do you know that? I think Tesla,
         | who would know for a fact the status of FSD during this
         | accident, might want to tweet that FSD wasn't on if it wasn't.
         | But they haven't. Also, as a human, why would you hit the
         | breaks in the fast lane with cars approaching? This does not
         | happen very often, especially on the incredibly crowded Bay
         | Bridge.
         | 
         | I actually was there at this accident and swerved just in time
         | to miss the cars piling up (you can see my car in both videos
         | of the accident just getting out). It was a truly scary thing.
        
           | redox99 wrote:
           | FSD does not support highways yet, so it automatically
           | switches to autopilot when you enter a highway. You can tell
           | because they use completely different UIs, visualizations,
           | settings, etc (FSD and autopilot are fully separate
           | software).
           | 
           | Tesla has been promising FSD v11 which will support highways
           | for a very long time already, but it isn't out yet.
        
         | phkahler wrote:
         | I'm assuming most people are like me and don't give a shit
         | weather it was FSD or Autopilot or some other software. The car
         | software was driving.
        
           | andrewinardeer wrote:
           | Driver is still responsible for vehicles actions.
        
             | LadyCailin wrote:
             | Both "Autopilot" and "Full Self Driving" both heavily imply
             | otherwise, even if you're technically correct.
        
         | rising-sky wrote:
         | Your counter claim is apparently false based on the attempt at
         | recreation in this linked video. The driver engage FSD while
         | driving into the same section of the Bay Bridge and tunnel
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/TeslaOwnersEBay/status/16140836244581253...
        
           | redox99 wrote:
           | That's the very tweet I'm referring to. Look at the screen
           | and you'll see it's autopilot, not FSD (ignore what they
           | say).
           | 
           | All these names are confusing to be honest, so it's
           | understandable that people mix them up.
        
         | bobkazamakis wrote:
         | this is the exact kind of bullshit that corporations have
         | gotten away with for too long. As a consumer, I do not give one
         | flying fuck what the new hip-slang for computer vision is, call
         | it "put your life in the hands of a company run by the most
         | burned out divorced dad person of the year".
        
           | yreg wrote:
           | One claim is completely different than the other one and the
           | truth is important here.
        
             | boucher wrote:
             | Not really. In this scenario there's no functional
             | difference between these two supposedly distinct products.
        
               | yreg wrote:
               | They are two different products with two different tech
               | stacks.
        
       | shafyy wrote:
       | This post doesn't link to a source. Is there an official
       | statement somewhere?
        
         | ajross wrote:
         | It's been floating around for few days. No major media has
         | picked up the story. This seems very fake, yeah.
         | 
         | FWIW: the original Klippenstein story was sourced only from 2-3
         | sentences in the police report too (a report that was
         | _explicit_ about its inability to verify the claim, no less).
         | The fact that an eyeball-driving story like this has gone this
         | long with so much as an on the record quote from the driver...
         | 
         | My original intuition looking at this was "Autopilot doesn't
         | have this behavior", and the longer this goes the more
         | convinced I am that the driver just fibbed to the cops. This
         | absolutely looks like a classic distracted driving accident,
         | and if it were _any_ other vehicle, even ones with assistive
         | technology, no one would think otherwise.
        
           | vagrantJin wrote:
           | Meh. I think criticism/public outcries of self driving is
           | neccessary. Needs tight regulations because as much as I
           | think self driving is entirely moronic, it is becoming
           | reality, and that reality needs a way for the law and justice
           | systems to be able to deal with it acccordingly.
           | 
           | The tech itself is impressive but not really a leap forward
           | for humanity or transportation. More sideways meamdering than
           | anything.
        
             | ajross wrote:
             | The question was "was autopilot engaged before this
             | collision?" though. Increasingly the evidence (c.f. this
             | decidedly fake story) seems questionable.
             | 
             | Criticism is fine. Mistrusths are not. You agree with that
             | much, right?
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | Untruths* ?
        
               | themitigating wrote:
               | What's a mistruth? Why not just use the word lie
        
               | wolverine876 wrote:
               | > decidedly fake story
               | 
               | You type that, which is easy. Can you address the story
               | on its merits?
        
               | tzs wrote:
               | He's questioning whether the story even has addressable
               | merits.
               | 
               | The story says the NHTSA report confirms FSD was on, but
               | the story cites as its source and appears to have just
               | cribbed their story from the CNN story.
               | 
               | The CNN story just says that the NHTSA confirms that
               | Tesla's "controversial driver-assist software" was
               | engaged and later says that the NHTSA has been
               | investigating both Autopilot and Full Self Driving.
               | There's nothing in the CNN story that tells if
               | "controversial driver-assist software" is Autopilot or
               | FSD.
               | 
               | CNN does not link to the actual NHTSA report. I could not
               | find it with a brief search, and found on Reddit people
               | who are much more familiar with NHTSA report procedures
               | also failing to find out.
               | 
               | I wouldn't call the submitted article a "fake story" like
               | he did. It's more a pointless story that has no good
               | reason to exist and should be replaced with the CNN story
               | and the CNN story's title.
        
               | jjulius wrote:
               | >The CNN story just says that the NHTSA confirms that
               | Tesla's "controversial driver-assist software" was
               | engaged and later says that the NHTSA has been
               | investigating both Autopilot and Full Self Driving.
               | There's nothing in the CNN story that tells if
               | "controversial driver-assist software" is Autopilot or
               | FSD.
               | 
               | Umm, this is from the CNN article linked to as a source
               | at the bottom...
               | 
               | >The Tesla's driver told authorities that the vehicle's
               | "full self-driving" software braked unexpectedly and
               | triggered the pileup on Thanksgiving day. CNN Business
               | was first to report last month the driver's claim that
               | "full self-driving" was active.
               | 
               | https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/17/business/tesla-8-car-
               | cras...
               | 
               | Edit: This is not me taking a position in this
               | discussion, just clarifying that the article does, in
               | fact, say that.
        
               | ajross wrote:
               | Really? It's published on a laptop review link farm
               | populated mostly with presumptively-auto-generated
               | content, not written by a journalist with a byline in any
               | major publication. It makes a blockbuster claim for which
               | it fails to cite sources (which should be trivially easy,
               | since it's claiming the DOT "released a report"!). It's
               | by an author who seemingly (see his history page)
               | generates one hit piece on Tesla or Musk properties every
               | few days.
               | 
               | If there's ever a fake source, this is it. If there was
               | an NHTSA report corroborating this, then the direct link
               | would be _everywhere_.
        
       | dekhn wrote:
       | Funny how Musk doesn't come out with a tweet saying "we checked
       | the logs and Autopilot/FSD wasn't enabled" any more. And this is
       | FSD, not Autopilot.
        
         | drewg123 wrote:
         | I thought FSD applied only to uncontrolled access surface
         | roads, and the bay bridge would be simply autopilot.
         | 
         | I know that in my car, the FSD stuff ends and regular autopilot
         | takes over on highways and other controlled access roads. I've
         | never driven the bay bridge in my Tesla (since I live thousands
         | of miles away), but I remember it being a controlled access
         | highway, so I assume it was the AP logic, not the FSD logic
         | that was in control.
        
           | elif wrote:
           | Correct. On the highway, every tesla would be on the old
           | 2016-born autopilot stack, not the FSD model. the only cars
           | that have v11 fsd highway stack are internal tesla test cars.
        
             | LadyCailin wrote:
             | Does autopilot change lanes? What's the difference between
             | autopilot and fsd?
        
           | dekhn wrote:
           | I came back to re-read this post and since I'm unable to find
           | any real corroborating information, I'm inclined to agree
           | that it makes much more sense it was on Autopilot.
           | 
           | (I also haven't seen any commentary from musk, but it's hard
           | to search twitter)
        
         | yumraj wrote:
         | He's busy selling Tesla stocks..
        
         | olliej wrote:
         | Weren't they also found to be disengaging so/fsd seconds prior
         | to impact and reporting it as driver error (because of their BS
         | "driver must always be ready to take control", with a more
         | rapid response than we expect from trained pilots)
        
           | raisedbyninjas wrote:
           | TBF, this is what level 2 and 3 are supposed to do. It's a
           | shade more driver friendly than driving headlong into an
           | obstacle and hoping the driver wrests control away from the
           | computer.
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | Level 3 is supposed to be smart enough to disengage and ask
             | the driver to drive. Level 2 is not required to be that
             | smart, and most level 2 cars are not.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | labster wrote:
         | Elon is too busy with Twitter to pay any attention to Tesla or
         | SpaceX. SpaceX keeps going just fine without him, but Tesla,
         | well...
        
           | epgui wrote:
           | Have you been actually tracking their financials? They're
           | doing exceptionally well.
        
             | jart wrote:
             | How can you? They're a private company now.
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | I was referring to Tesla, which the other commenter
               | appears to think is struggling.
        
       | LatteLazy wrote:
       | I don't know why Tesla etc are not required to report the number
       | of crashes per 1000km in different modes publicly. Until those
       | numbers are available none of us can really judge, least of all
       | based on single incidents...
        
         | yreg wrote:
         | >I don't know why
         | 
         | Because no other car maker is mandated to report these numbers
         | either. Tesla is not the only brand with adaptive cruise
         | control or line assist.
         | 
         | (I think sharing the data would be the right thing to do
         | though.)
        
           | jjulius wrote:
           | >Tesla is not the only brand with adaptive cruise control or
           | line assist.
           | 
           | What about FSD?
        
         | elif wrote:
         | they've reported them since 2016
         | 
         | tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport
        
           | culi wrote:
           | They have never published any data. Also, those number are
           | also obviously misleading. Comparing my 2008 extended van I
           | bought for $5k to a luxury vehicle is obviously pointless and
           | useless
           | 
           | In addition, those "safety reports" continue to spout
           | misinformation that the National Transportation Safety Board
           | is currently suing Tesla for
        
             | sidibe wrote:
             | Luxury vs non luxury is always the first thing brought up
             | with this report, but that's not the biggest issue IMO.
             | Mainly it compares the easiest miles where people feel
             | comfortable using Autopilot vs all miles. I wonder how many
             | miles per accident there are with cruise control engaged.
        
             | epgui wrote:
             | You're commenting on a literal publishing of data. Just
             | because the data doesn't look the way you want doesn't mean
             | it's not data.
             | 
             | (Edit: if you're going to downvote me, please explain how a
             | literal interpretation of exactly what I wrote is
             | technically incorrect.)
        
               | culi wrote:
               | This is a report containing unverifiable statements
               | _about_ internal data that they explicitly refuse to
               | release
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | It's still data. I'm not saying it's great data, I'm just
               | saying it's some data. And I get downvoted?
        
               | JoeAltmaier wrote:
               | If they don't release it, then it's vapor. Not data. Just
               | a PR story.
        
               | wolverine876 wrote:
               | > If they don't release it, then it's vapor.
               | 
               | Plenty of analysis is based on data that isn't released.
               | And do you have data that says otherwise? Why should we
               | believe you?
        
               | culi wrote:
               | Yes I have data that says otherwise. No I won't release
               | it.
        
               | detaro wrote:
               | why should we believe them, especially given their track
               | record?
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | Well it is a general principle of _civility_ that we
               | should believe people _by default_ , unless we have good
               | reason not to. I'm not sure what you're referring to when
               | you say "track record" though.
        
               | ryanwaggoner wrote:
               | Technically speaking, I believe they've released
               | statistics (analysis), but not data, meaning the
               | individual data points the analysis is based on.
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | Derived data is still data. I did not say or imply it was
               | raw or source data.
               | 
               | Most data we use is derived and processed data. Much of
               | the data we use is a statistic.
        
               | ryanwaggoner wrote:
               | My analysis shows that your comments display a 98.36%
               | bias in favor of Tesla.
               | 
               | And now we have data to show it :)
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | Well that number is made up, but yes I do have highly
               | favourable feelings for that company, and for full
               | disclosure, I am also a shareholder. I believe in their
               | mission to accelerate the world's transition to
               | sustainable energy. (Note: this does not mean I approve
               | of everything Elon does and says)
        
               | bobkazamakis wrote:
               | Anecdotes are not data. I can tell you this for a fact
               | from my time spent on the lunar base last financial
               | quarter.
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | When you say "anecdotes", what are you referring to here?
               | Because we're talking about the summary data published by
               | Tesla. We're not talking about someone's story or
               | personal experiences.
        
       | hbarka wrote:
       | It's relatively easy to take over the controls which instantly
       | disengages FSD or Autopilot. Why this Bay Bridge driver didn't do
       | that just boggles me. It's almost like these drivers have lost or
       | no sense of a mechanical aptitude and so when something like this
       | happens they freak out and freeze. No mechanical sense at all and
       | just stays there to get rear ended. No athletic sense either.
       | Driving school ought to incorporate playing tag or pushing around
       | a grocery cart in a supermarket for a day and equate all that you
       | do as an analog to driving mechanics and athleticism. (Just don't
       | use IKEA carts or you'll go mad.)
       | 
       | It's really easy to step on the accelerator or brake or turn the
       | wheel which instantly makes the car human operated again.
        
         | wolverine876 wrote:
         | The issue is the FSD, not the driver. Also, drivers might not
         | react quickly enough; what reaction time is needed to OODA.
         | Finaly, if drivers are 100% engaged, they have no use for FSD.
        
           | epgui wrote:
           | If this exact same thing had happened 20 years ago, we would
           | all agree that the people to blame are the ones behind. The
           | person who rear-ends another is almost always at fault.
           | 
           | So even if FSD made the very poor decision to slow down or
           | stop right there (and I will point out we have good reason to
           | think this was not FSD, but rather autopilot or human
           | driving), the blame still goes to the rear-ender.
        
             | giantrobot wrote:
             | The Tesla switched fucking lanes. You're can't fault
             | someone in the second lane for not predicting some asshole
             | will cut them off and slam on the brakes. The robot is a
             | laughably bad driver. If a human had the collective record
             | of either Autopilot or FSD they'd be uninsurable and have
             | long ago lost their license.
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | Well, the police, the judges, and the insurance companies
               | fault people for rear-ending others in similar situations
               | all the time.
        
               | jyxent wrote:
               | Only due to the absence of other information. This is why
               | lots of people have started using dashcams.
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | Yeah... But in the vast majority of cases, rear-ending is
               | caused by some combination of inattention and tailgating
               | rather than the malice of the leading car. Let's not
               | forget that humans are really bad at driving in general,
               | and that this is extremely frequent.
               | 
               | And even if the leading car was non-malicious and merely
               | incompetent, it's your responsibility to not hit anything
               | in front of you. For liability, you worry about what's in
               | front, not what's behind.
               | 
               | The only way you get out of being liable for rear-ending
               | someone is if the leading car maliciously caused you to
               | rear-end them, or if something unpredictable happened
               | that would have made it impossible for you to avoid
               | hitting the other car.
        
               | jyxent wrote:
               | > The only way you get out of being liable for rear-
               | ending someone is if the leading car maliciously caused
               | you to rear-end them, or if something unpredictable
               | happened that would have made it impossible for you to
               | avoid hitting the other car.
               | 
               | This is literally what happened in this situation. If you
               | have a dashcam and something like this happens, you won't
               | be found at fault.
        
               | int_19h wrote:
               | The Tesla is certainly at fault here, and the driver who
               | rear-ended it is not at fault. The cars behind him are
               | another matter, though.
        
             | wolverine876 wrote:
             | > I will point out we have good reason to think this was
             | not FSD, but rather autopilot or human driving
             | 
             | No, the actual research says otherwise
             | 
             | > If this exact same thing had happened 20 years ago, we
             | would all agree that the people to blame are the ones
             | behind.
             | 
             | No, not if someone comes to a sudden stop in a busy lane.
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | What "actual research"? This article? There's no source.
        
               | int_19h wrote:
               | Coming to a sudden stop in a busy lane may well be
               | necessary if there's some unexpected obstacle in front of
               | you. Which is why road rules _require_ maintaining
               | sufficient distance to the car in front of you that if it
               | has to brake hard, you have enough time to react and do
               | the same thing without ramming into it.
               | 
               | IIRC police has already said that at least some cars
               | involved in the accident did not maintain such a safe
               | distance, and their drivers thus bear their share of
               | responsibility for the crash.
        
         | ragebol wrote:
         | To start doing that, a driver needs situational awareness.
         | Getting that takes time. If you truly believe it's fully self
         | driving, you think you can afford to look away and loose that
         | awareness.
         | 
         | This gap between 'sometimes needs attention' and 'never needs
         | attention' is hard to bridge and very dangerous, obviously
        
           | hbarka wrote:
           | I've seen the video. This driver had Autopilot on and
           | experienced "phantom braking". If you drive a Tesla you'll
           | have experienced phantom braking at some point, a false
           | positive condition when the Autopilot cameras thinks there's
           | a wall up ahead, for example if going under an overpass. It
           | will literally brake. You step on the accelerator and cuss
           | once or twice at Elon and you're good to move on. This Bay
           | Bridge driver could not make a decision and let the car brake
           | to a stop. It's not uncommon. Anecdotally I would say Teslas
           | get rear-ended quite often.
        
             | n0tth3dro1ds wrote:
             | >"If you drive a Tesla you'll have experienced phantom
             | braking at some point, a false positive condition when the
             | Autopilot cameras thinks there's a wall up ahead, for
             | example if going under an overpass. It will literally
             | brake. You step on the accelerator and cuss once or twice
             | at Elon and you're good to move on. This Bay Bridge driver
             | could not make a decision and let the car brake to a stop.
             | It's not uncommon. Anecdotally I would say Teslas get rear-
             | ended quite often."
             | 
             | This level of apologism is shocking. "Everyone knows Teslas
             | emergency brake to a stop in the middle of highway traffic
             | randomly, bro. Just gotta be ready for it! No biggie!"
             | 
             | Yikes. Ever considered rental cars? Borrowing a friend's
             | car that you're not familiar? Or just 100+ years of
             | automotive history in which random no-input braking was
             | considered completely unacceptable and not even a thing?
        
               | hbarka wrote:
               | Hey you're misquoting me. I'm no Tesla apologist actually
               | looking to get rid of it but this is the way you live
               | with Autopilot. I'm done with Musk and his hypocrisy. All
               | I'm saying is that everyone and their neighbor now drive
               | Teslas but don't have a mechanical sense for what lane
               | keeping assist is.
        
             | clouddrover wrote:
             | You're not making a good case for Tesla. Maybe the best
             | thing to do is to not buy a Tesla in the first place.
        
         | flandish wrote:
         | The byproduct of the migration of the modern automobile into a
         | rolling living room will, no doubt, result in people driving
         | who should not. I don't mean to sound like a "standard shift
         | get off my lawn and into a jeep" old man but...
         | 
         | Yes, it's all anecdotal evidence from both my time as a vehicle
         | owning adult and in my nearly 20 years picking up people from
         | car accidents as a firefighter.
         | 
         | But yeah, super easy to just zone out these days.
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | It's also really easy to criticize from an armchair.
         | 
         | Nothing to do with mechanical sense or athleticism, all to do
         | with attention and surprise. Self-driving encourages people to
         | reduce their vigilance - after all, that's what they bought it
         | for, so they could do less driving - while at the same time it
         | introduces a whole new category of surprises.
         | 
         | People are trained for normal driving. They are not trained to
         | deal with _this kind_ of emergency.
         | 
         | A self-driving system that can't be relied on and needs
         | constant vigilance has turned the "driver" into a driving
         | instructor who needs to do nothing except for occasionally
         | correct the mistakes of the computer. This is a harder job than
         | regular driving.
        
           | Ntrails wrote:
           | It drives me nuts that we could expect people who are not
           | driving to maintain the same level of engagement as someone
           | actively driving. It is absurd.
           | 
           | Not to mention as peoples skills at controlling a car
           | atrophy, via being a passenger, we expect them to be able to
           | immediately switch on in a high pressure high context
           | situation and make good decisions.
           | 
           | I will happily use a car that drives itself. But only once I
           | am sat facing backwards, purely a passenger.
        
         | n0tth3dro1ds wrote:
         | >It's relatively easy to take over the controls which instantly
         | disengages FSD or Autopilot.
         | 
         | What a naive assertion. Have you read takeover studies? Driver
         | assistance systems put drivers in a state of inattention
         | (universally, not just ones named "Autopilot" or "Full Self-
         | Driving", which undoubtedly makes it worse). Regaining
         | attention and building a model of actors and hazards around you
         | takes time -- too much time to make the necessary split second
         | maneuver to avoid an accident at highway speeds.
         | 
         | So, if you constantly have to maintain full attention even with
         | FSD engaged, what are you really buying for $15k? You don't get
         | to sleep. You don't get to watch a movie. You don't even get to
         | relax your awareness at all. If you do, the company that you
         | paid $15k to for "Full Self-Driving" will say YOU were the one
         | being irresponsible.
         | 
         | Basically, I see Tesla's FSD as the following proposition:
         | "Would you like to pay $15k to allow an overly-cautious and
         | sometimes-erratic beginner driver to drive you around
         | everywhere? Most of the time, this driver will drive so
         | cautiously that it will frustrate you and confuse other drivers
         | on the road. This driver may also get confused by shadows and
         | abnormal visual phenomena, and this may lead to inexplicable
         | emergency braking or incorrect path selection at any time. To
         | help this driver, we'll install a second steering wheel and
         | pedals at your passenger seat so that you can take over driving
         | at any time (which you WILL be required to do regularly and
         | immediately). If you guys get in an accident, YOU will be at
         | fault, no matter what." Sooner or later, people will stop
         | buying this garbage and just opt to drive themselves.
        
       | nullish_signal wrote:
       | Much as Teslas navigate through "un-occluded space" I wonder if
       | they do not sufficiently factor in their own Occlusion (blocking)
       | of space.
       | 
       | What kind of idiot STOPS ON A DIME with speeding cars hot on his
       | tail? Only a Computer... It's unfortunate that the Driver did not
       | have the sense to Slam on the Gas -The idea of "Slow == Safe" can
       | be disastrous...
        
         | nullish_signal wrote:
         | As an aside, I wish that Stoplights would factor in Aggregate
         | Kinetic Energy of the Traffic they manage. I feel a bit bad
         | every time my Single Stopped Car gets a Green, causing a group
         | of 10 Cars at 40 mph to Stop, then later Re-Accelerate. If the
         | stupid Junction had waited some time, the 10 Cars would happily
         | carry their 40 mph through, allowing me to go once the Large
         | Kinetic Energy Traffic had passed uninterrupted.
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | The aggregate kinetic energy of any number of stopped cars is
           | zero so I don't see how your algorithm will work.
        
             | tzs wrote:
             | For simplicity lets assume all the cars in this discussion
             | are the same mass and travel at the same speed except when
             | they slow and stop for a traffic light or are accelerating
             | back up to speed after the light changes. Let E be the
             | kinetic energy of each car when it is not dealing with a
             | traffic light. Let's assume no regenerative braking. Let's
             | assume that a car idling at rest uses R energy
             | 
             | So we have 1 car that approaches the light, gets a red, and
             | stops. It has to shed E kinetic energy. Then 10 cars
             | approach the intersection on the perpendicular road. Before
             | they reach it the light changes and they all have to stop,
             | shedding 10 E kinetic energy. The first car resumes its
             | journey. The light changes again and the other 10 resume.
             | 
             | The net result is that encountering the intersection caused
             | this 11 car system to shed 11 E kinetic energy more and to
             | consume 11 R idling energy more than would have been
             | consumed if the intersection had not been there (e.g., if
             | the crossing had been an overpass).
             | 
             | What he's proposing is that some sort of smart traffic
             | light system could notice the 10 approaching cars and hold
             | their green a little longer so that the 10 cars do not have
             | to stop. Suppose it has to hold the light long enough that
             | car 1 has to wait twice as long.
             | 
             | The energy cost of the intersection on the 11 car system
             | under that scenario is E shed kinetic energy and 2 R idling
             | energy. That's going to be much less that 11 E + 11 R.
        
           | hgsgm wrote:
           | In English, we don't capitalize common nouns.
        
         | sidlls wrote:
         | Have you ever driven the 101 in the Bay Area? I've never seen
         | so many purely shit drivers in my life. And I lived in Florida
         | for years. People routinely merge across from their on-ramp to
         | the express lane doing 5-10 mph _under_ the speed limit, brake
         | suddenly when the car a dozen or more car lengths ahead of them
         | flashes their lights, etc. It's a pure shitshow.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | flandish wrote:
         | All drivers should drive with the assumption the person in
         | front of them will, at some point, instantly turn into a wall
         | like a Wile E Coyote drawing of a mountainside cave.
        
           | notfish wrote:
           | I've always thought of it more like "will slam on their
           | breaks" than "turn into a wall". In most states, rearending
           | is your fault unless the person in front of you stopped
           | faster than is normal (i.e. was hit head on by an oncoming
           | car), and I think that sets a good standard for what you
           | should be prepared for.
           | 
           | If a tree falls on the car in front of you and you hit them
           | because they stopped instantly, it's hardly your fault.
        
           | cjensen wrote:
           | Indeed. Transmission failures, bearing failures, tire
           | blowouts, and throwing a rod all can cause a car on a freeway
           | to stop quickly. The onus of avoiding this is entirely on the
           | following car.
        
             | 13of40 wrote:
             | Kind of makes me wonder what would have happened if all the
             | cars involved had been on autopilot. Would there have been
             | a collision at all?
        
               | epgui wrote:
               | We'll never know, but I would wager not.
               | 
               | If the stopping car had been an old Toyota and we all had
               | the same footage... well, it probably wouldn't even make
               | the news in the first place... but if it did, we'd all be
               | blaming the rear-enders. But because it's a Tesla, and
               | there is a possibility that AI was involved, suddenly we
               | shift our blame from the rear-enders and tailgaters to
               | the computer.
               | 
               | We've always had double standards for humans and
               | machines.
        
         | hgsgm wrote:
         | 1. Didn't stop on a dime. Slowed down, and was hit while still
         | movin5.
         | 
         | 2. It's impossible to be safe if someone is (illegally!)
         | tailgating.
        
         | pseudo0 wrote:
         | > What kind of idiot STOPS ON A DIME with speeding cars hot on
         | his tail? Only a Computer...
         | 
         | Humans do it on a pretty regular basis unfortunately. I have
         | seen people slam on the brakes at highway speed for minor road
         | debris, small animals, and a couple of times for no apparent
         | reason. The only thing you can do as a driver is minimize your
         | own risk by leaving sufficient following distance.
        
           | hellotomyrars wrote:
           | The follow distance thing really pisses me off. I was
           | recently read ended as a result of the person behind me both
           | not paying attention and having been way to close to me to
           | stop in time. And since other drivers don't understand the
           | concept of a safe following distance they cut in front of me
           | and now we're practically bumper to bumper.
           | 
           | Ironically this is one of the areas where driver assist can
           | be helpful. Adaptive cruise control that maintains following
           | distance though in practice I don't think people use it much.
        
           | wolverine876 wrote:
           | > pretty regular basis
           | 
           | It's very rare. I've never seen it, IIRC.
        
             | slenk wrote:
             | No offense, but what makes you the authority on all driving
             | everywhere? Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean
             | it doesn't happen on a pretty regular basis.
             | 
             | Dolphins die on a pretty regular basis and I've never seen
             | it. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen on a regular
             | basis...
        
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