Too Fast and Furious?

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LuckyR
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Re: Too Fast and Furious?

Post by LuckyR »

Sculptor1 wrote: November 15th, 2021, 1:50 pm
LuckyR wrote: November 15th, 2021, 1:05 pm
Steve3007 wrote: November 15th, 2021, 7:21 am
Sculptor1 wrote:THe most innovative and I believe most effective means of road safety, that I have ever heard of, would be to include and six inch spike extending out of the steering column pointing directly at the heart of the driver.
I guarentee that any driver facing the constant threat of death would definietly drive with more care.
I remember reading/hearing about that idea too. Obviously it's tongue-in-cheek, but it does raise an interesting point which, in its most general form, relates to the old "Nature abhors a vacuum" principle. i.e. Things tend to expand to fill the space available and, by analogy, the more safe we feel a system is the more recklessly we'll tend to use it. So our behaviour expands to fill the available, so to speak, safety space. I suppose it's also related to the argument made by the gun lobby in the US that if everyone is always "packing heat" (as I believe the expression goes) then people will generally be more polite to each other (for fear of being shot).
It is a psychological truism that extra safety, antilock brakes and helmet use have been documented, leads to more reckless behaviour. This is one of the advantages of self driving cars.
Maybe you should think about the pedestrians too...

There is a possible problem with unforeseen behavioural changes. In a world where all cars are driverless, people will know that cars always have to yield to pedestrians. This will lead to mayhem since no pedestrian would ever have to worry about crossing the road and would do so with utter impugnity. Imagine the chaos!

Imagine a driverless taxi trying to negotiate the drunks haing fun leaping in front of cars or just deciding to walk in the middle of the road. As it is try driving down Brighton seafront on a Weekend night!
You are quite correct, various options do indeed have both pros and cons. I suppose someone is surprised by that.
"As usual... it depends."
Steve3007
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Re: Too Fast and Furious?

Post by Steve3007 »

Sculptor1 wrote:...Imagine a driverless taxi trying to negotiate the drunks haing fun leaping in front of cars or just deciding to walk in the middle of the road. As it is try driving down Brighton seafront on a Weekend night!
Good point, but maybe more of those drunks will actually be in the cars, since presumably the whole concept of the "designated driver" will be redundant. I know that one of the things that often stops me from drinking of an evening is the annoying fact that I'm going to have to pick up one of the kids later. With the advent of driverless cars we might all get a lot drunker.

Anyway, to solve the problem you mentioned I suggest fitting driverless cars with cattle prods sticking out the front.
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Sculptor1
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Re: Too Fast and Furious?

Post by Sculptor1 »

Steve3007 wrote: November 16th, 2021, 7:12 am
Sculptor1 wrote:...Imagine a driverless taxi trying to negotiate the drunks haing fun leaping in front of cars or just deciding to walk in the middle of the road. As it is try driving down Brighton seafront on a Weekend night!
Good point, but maybe more of those drunks will actually be in the cars, since presumably the whole concept of the "designated driver" will be redundant. I know that one of the things that often stops me from drinking of an evening is the annoying fact that I'm going to have to pick up one of the kids later. With the advent of driverless cars we might all get a lot drunker.

Anyway, to solve the problem you mentioned I suggest fitting driverless cars with cattle prods sticking out the front.
Catlle prods with sharp blades would be good.
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