A driverless Google car hit a bus on February 14th, and it was the Google car’s fault. This was a first, so it made the front page of USA Today. It was a very human accident. The car detected obstacles in its lane and anticipated that the bus on its left would slow down so the car could merge in. But the bus driver assumed the car would abandon its attempt to change lanes. The car made the wrong decision. Maybe that was California programming. In NJ, everyone knows the bus would speed up to keep the car from merging in.
When I’m driving, I’m not solely watching what is happening, I’m trying to predict what’s going to happen. There are the obvious bad drivers that swerve in and out of lanes without signaling, the super-speedsters and the tailgaters…but I’m thinking about the more subtle signs. I watch the front tires of cars moving in lanes next to me. Parallel to the lane lines is good; sudden drifting towards a line is bad. Or a car that’s moving in a lane at a speed where you know he’s going to have to hit the brakes because you can both see a car ahead of him. Or the Camry that thinks it’s a Camaro. I also notice cars already damaged or cars with lights not working.
Driverless Google cars have been in 17 other accidents, the majority of which were rear-ended – “typically at intersections where [other drivers] anticipated the Google car would move ahead.” Ah-ha. The fix is simple. New Jersey rules need to apply. Everyone knows that you step on it when the light turns yellow, not stop!
When I’m driving, I’m not solely watching what is happening, I’m trying to predict what’s going to happen. There are the obvious bad drivers that swerve in and out of lanes without signaling, the super-speedsters and the tailgaters…but I’m thinking about the more subtle signs. I watch the front tires of cars moving in lanes next to me. Parallel to the lane lines is good; sudden drifting towards a line is bad. Or a car that’s moving in a lane at a speed where you know he’s going to have to hit the brakes because you can both see a car ahead of him. Or the Camry that thinks it’s a Camaro. I also notice cars already damaged or cars with lights not working.
Driverless Google cars have been in 17 other accidents, the majority of which were rear-ended – “typically at intersections where [other drivers] anticipated the Google car would move ahead.” Ah-ha. The fix is simple. New Jersey rules need to apply. Everyone knows that you step on it when the light turns yellow, not stop!