Like driving? Like driving fast? I'm going to ruin your evening.

ThePrettyDamned

Garthy said:

Moltisanti said:

the sooner we remove the human element from driving the better. drive for fun on tracks, and let google get us where we need to go

28 million people drive every day and the overwhelming majority do not fuck it up. It's taken BMW 7 years to make their latest fuel injection system reliable, or rather I should say tolerable. I admire the blind optimism people have about self driving cars but considering that auto manufacturers still fuck things up, tech companies still fuck things up like phones igniting and large telecoms and banks have had security problems then the idea of a self driving car scares me senseless. It would be cheaper and easier to raise the standards of  licence holders and natural selection will sort out those that don't need a licence to use the road.  

Inexperience is a big bad, as shown by the insurance premiums of the under 25s, especially the under 21s yet people want more inexperience, championing it even. There is already a vehicle for those completely disinterested in driving, the bus

Absolutely. 

I openly welcome assistive (?) technologies, but believe (no matter how automated they get) the person behind the wheel is ultimately responsible for the vehicle. 

sweepy

If you are doing 70 in the outside lane and someone comes up behind you in a pretty rapid fashion, it is always advisable to pull into the middle lane and let them through, to do otherwise just frustrates and annoys all concerned

guitarfishbay

sweepy said:

If you are doing 70 in the outside lane and someone comes up behind you in a pretty rapid fashion, it is always advisable to pull into the middle lane and let them through, to do otherwise just frustrates and annoys all concerned

I agree about pulling in but what happens when there's nowhere safe to pull in for a while due to no viable space in the middle lane?

My experience is that often the fast driver doesn't keep a safe distance in this scenario and this is a danger they're creating unnecessarily. They should slow down, leave reasonable space, and wait until it's safe for the person in front to pull in. The person in front shouldn't be expected to speed up if they're already doing 70. More to the point, if it's a small engine on a hill they probably can't 

ICBM

sweepy said:

If you are doing 70 in the outside lane and someone comes up behind you in a pretty rapid fashion, it is always advisable to pull into the middle lane and let them through, to do otherwise just frustrates and annoys all concerned

I'd be interested to know how you do that if the middle lane is full of traffic… which is the reason you're in the outside lane overtaking it, of course.

Or are you speaking from the point of view of someone who gets frustrated and annoyed when a driver who is doing the legal speed limit refuses to get out of your way?

Moltisanti

"28 million people drive every day and the overwhelming majority do not fuck it up."

It must just be the ones on the M6 that cause daily hell for thousands of motorists.

We're not there yet, but machines don't text, they don't feel tired, they can't be interrupted by kids, and they won't speed or make stupid decisions. Self driving cars as a mature concept will save thousands of lives per year and free up millions of people to deal with their shit without endangering other drivers

Garthy

guitarfishbay said:

sweepy said:

If you are doing 70 in the outside lane and someone comes up behind you in a pretty rapid fashion, it is always advisable to pull into the middle lane and let them through, to do otherwise just frustrates and annoys all concerned

I agree about pulling in but what happens when there's nowhere safe to pull in for a while due to no viable space in the middle lane?

My experience is that often the fast driver doesn't keep a safe distance in this scenario and this is a danger they're creating unnecessarily. They should slow down, leave reasonable space, and wait until it's safe for the person in front to pull in. The person in front shouldn't be expected to speed up if they're already doing 70. More to the point, if it's a small engine on a hill they probably can't 

Burglary is illegal but you still lock your doors and windows...

guitarfishbay

You have to lock your doors for insurance reasons. There is no obligation to speed.

benecol

guitarfishbay said:

sweepy said:

If you are doing 70 in the outside lane and someone comes up behind you in a pretty rapid fashion, it is always advisable to pull into the middle lane and let them through, to do otherwise just frustrates and annoys all concerned

I agree about pulling in but what happens when there's nowhere safe to pull in for a while due to no viable space in the middle lane?

My experience is that often the fast driver doesn't keep a safe distance in this scenario and this is a danger they're creating unnecessarily. They should slow down, leave reasonable space, and wait until it's safe for the person in front to pull in. The person in front shouldn't be expected to speed up if they're already doing 70. More to the point, if it's a small engine on a hill they probably can't 

I did a speed awareness course recently (so forgive the slight whiff of hypocrisy); advice was, if you're being tailgated, drive slightly slower (I guess in the example above, stick to 70mph to keep overtaking), thus creating space in front of you for the shortdickman behind to overtake.

cj73

Why do people see the breaking of a law as an infringement of civl liberty?

Why do I see so many posts on Facebook about HGV drivers leaving " braking distance" when they don't?

I agree that some limits in some places are are a bit odd, but it's the law.  Would you rape someone because they looked a bit racy?

Sporky

cj73 said:

Would you rape someone because they looked a bit racy?

Gosh no!

They'd have to be full-on saucy.

ThePrettyDamned

Garthy said:

guitarfishbay said:

sweepy said:

If you are doing 70 in the outside lane and someone comes up behind you in a pretty rapid fashion, it is always advisable to pull into the middle lane and let them through, to do otherwise just frustrates and annoys all concerned

I agree about pulling in but what happens when there's nowhere safe to pull in for a while due to no viable space in the middle lane?

My experience is that often the fast driver doesn't keep a safe distance in this scenario and this is a danger they're creating unnecessarily. They should slow down, leave reasonable space, and wait until it's safe for the person in front to pull in. The person in front shouldn't be expected to speed up if they're already doing 70. More to the point, if it's a small engine on a hill they probably can't 

Burglary is illegal but you still lock your doors and windows...

But the equivalent wouldn't be that - it would be, burglary is illegal but you do it anyway because you usually won't be caught and mostly people don't get hurt but if anyone gets in your way then you'll not be happy. 

Garthy

Someone will always let you in, just mov over and let them race up to the next car.

sweepy

There are many drivers that sit in the outside lane when there is plenty of room in the Middle lane, they just sit there because they cannot be arsed to Mirror-Signal-Manouvre. Having two kids at Uni I spend a lot of time on Motorways and I see this regularly and it's not only thoughtless but careless as they are not paying attention

Moltisanti

People are shit at driving, machines will be better

Garthy

Moltisanti said:

"28 million people drive every day and the overwhelming majority do not fuck it up."

It must just be the ones on the M6 that cause daily hell for thousands of motorists.

We're not there yet, but machines don't text, they don't feel tired, they can't be interrupted by kids, and they won't speed or make stupid decisions. Self driving cars as a mature concept will save thousands of lives per year and free up millions of people to deal with their shit without endangering other drivers

Texting while driving and speeding is already illegal, only one of them has been actively policed. If you cause an accident or caught driving while sleep deprived or distracted then the law already deals with you with DWDCA & Dangerous Driving. Utter stupidity is also covered under DWDCA & Dangerous Driving.

Machines have their own set of problems, they break, they shut down, they can be hacked. You're trying to address a problem of bad behaviour of "I'm not speeding so I'm ok" and dreadful policing by replacing it with massive complexity. Yesterday my iPhone turned into a paperweight while I was writing a text, it needed a 'hard reset' according to a shop assistant - it's a good job I was sitting at my kitchen table and not being driven at 70mph on the M25 when my iAuto decides to go dark because it's the wrong phase of moon.

Currently in an accident the fault is assumed that of a driver, unless a mechanical fault can be found. When a self driving vehicle has an accident, who is deemed at fault- the occupants, the manufacturer, the navigation supplier or the last person to service it?

I'm sure it would be cheaper to have better training and more personal responsibility backed up with better policing than the infrastructure and laws to govern self driving cars. It's a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

fields5069

Politics of envy, lol.

I've got a scarily (to me at least) fast car and I tend to largely stick quite close to speed limits. You can call it the "Politics of not thinking I'm Emerson-chuffing-Fitipaldi".

fields5069

VimFuego said:

I've often wondered what you have to do to get points. I've been driving for 29 years now, I have been pulled over a grand total of twice in that entire time. Now, I'm no angel, I generally drive between 70 and 80 on the m way if I'm going a distance, but no points ever. So I'm curious what you have to do to get tickets.

That is pretty angelic though. I'm the same, I've never been pulled over for speeding though.

Sporky

Garthy said:

Machines have their own set of problems, they break, they shut down, they can be hacked. You're trying to address a problem of bad behaviour of "I'm not speeding so I'm ok" and dreadful policing by replacing it with massive complexity. Yesterday my iPhone turned into a paperweight while I was writing a text, it needed a 'hard reset' according to a shop assistant - it's a good job I was sitting at my kitchen table and not being driven at 70mph on the M25 when my iAuto decides to go dark because it's the wrong phase of moon.

Software for cars (and planes) isn't written the same way as software for phones for exactly that reason. You can't make a fair comparison of the two.