Thread: Autonomous Vehicles

Originally Posted by rammypluge

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Its so easy to improve road safety, but its not being done. .......

Road safety is improving, and has been for many years. But while I agree the major issues are not being addressed, I disagree with your suggestions as to the major issues. Driver training is not a really major issue, nor is knowledge of the laws. Just because drivers behave as if they do not know the laws does not mean they don't know them. Making a licence much harder and more expensive to get will mean a lot more driving without the benefit of a licence, with limited benefit.

If you really want to make a major impact on the number of accidents consider these statistics - when random breath tests are carried out on drivers, these invariably show way under 1% test above the limit (and drug tests, although not really widespread enough yet, seem similar). Yet for accidents serious enough for drivers to be tested after the accident, 20-30% of drivers are over the limit. Bearing in mind that for many of these two drivers are tested, it seems that serious accidents have alcohol as a major contributor more than twenty times as often as the number of affected drivers suggest.

To me, this suggests that driver training is not the issue! (However, bear in mind that no accident has a single cause, but multiple contributing factors.)

I agree with you, John, every accident has multiple contributions; but usually only a single major issue. The major issues mostly will fall into the following causes.

Attitudes:
Selfishness, impatience, a need to prove that one is better or more important than all others.
The confusion of ability with ambition, immaturity.

Alcohol/Drug consumption:
The direct effects need no embellishment but also, often induce issues covered in the previous paragraph.

Fatigue:
A major issue that is difficult to quantify, regulate or pinpoint.

Training and education are not great issues, in most incidence a competent driver can, and will compensate for the less competent, with a modicum of common sense. Professional instruction should be exactly that, rather than immigrants, who first learned to drive in a third world country, showing kids how to pass the test. A licence should be valued highly enough to encourage its preservation.

i disagree.
the number of people who cannot merge or use a roundabout correctly is staggering. something like this is not a behavioral issue.

and there is more to driving than just knowing the road rules. we train our new drivers to pass a test, not a drive well.

Another idea, will different brands of AV behave differently? Is BMW arrogance unavoidable, even by computers? Will small Toyotas still potter along at well below the speed limit? What's a pedestrian or two to an autonomous Bentley?

Originally Posted by bee utey

Another idea, will different brands of AV behave differently? Is BMW arrogance unavoidable, even by computers? Will small Toyotas still potter along at well below the speed limit? What's a pedestrian or two to an autonomous Bentley?

will hoon cars still be modified?

Some people get irritated and then do risky things when in the inside lane of dual carriageways when the speed limit is 60km/h because they are being held back by the vehicle in front and are not 100% sure about the law. They think the person in front of them should possibly be keeping left unless overtaking, even though that is not the case.

Many, many people sit in the inside lane on dual carriageways with a speed limit of 80km/h or more without knowing they are breaking the law. This irritates many people behind them, who then often do risky things.

The typical driver sits 2 seconds behind the vehicle in front, which is illegal, at least in SA, and risky. Many drivers sit closer than that. It is so prevalent it is cultural, people learn the behaviour from each other instinctively.

Heaps of people think that you have to give way to your right at roundabouts, and will scream in with no chance of stopping even though someone to their left only has to give way to them if and when they are in the roundabout.

I have been reliably told that reversing onto a roadway is illegal. It makes sense for it to be illegal. Its very dangerous, and avoidable. Next to no one thinks this is illegal, and does it, creating excessive risk of incident.

There are other traffic laws that people are not fully aware of. If you teach people what the laws are and explain to them why each law exists it goes a long way towards generating appropriate behaviour from them. Policing can sort out the people that know but have the wrong attitude.

On top of this the government can ensure that learners are taught how to drive defensively. To read driver behaviour and anticipate events.

If someone is driving slowly in front of you and is speeding up and slowing down, they might just be trying to find a place, and might just stand on the brakes and turn with little or no indication at any time. You dont at that point want to be less than 3 seconds behind them, but a lot of drivers will unknowingly be up their tail trying to bully them into going faster.

Originally Posted by rammypluge

The typical driver sits 2 seconds behind the vehicle in front, which is illegal, at least in SA, and risky. Many drivers sit closer than that. It is so prevalent it is cultural, people learn the behaviour from each other instinctively.

More like 1/2 a second at 80KPH on Melbourne freeways. I try and maintain a 2 second gap and it isn't uncommon to have 2 vehicles at a time jump in front of me - and they wonder why there are so many accidents caused by people running up others bums...

Originally Posted by Eevo

i disagree.
the number of people who cannot merge or use a roundabout correctly is staggering. something like this is not a behavioral issue.
...

I disagree - there is no way you can know from the observation that people do not do something that they cannot do it. Contrary to your contention, with my main town having many roundabouts, so I am in them multiple times every trip to town, the cases I see of their not being correctly used are very rare. While I encounter merging more rarely, I do not see it as a major issue.

Having made a long (350km) round trip to pick up my grandchildren for the school holidays yesterday, I found that despite relatively heavy traffic it was quite difficult to find fault with other drivers. A couple who were clearly not happy with the posted speed limit, but at least they did not overtake dangerously. Merging at the end of overtaking lanes was uneventful, and several roundabouts were negotiated without issue.