I will admit, I’m a bad driver; when an emergency arises and I have to change lanes suddenly, I almost never signal first. My bad.
here in NoVA if you happen to show turn signals before you started your turn, you will always get your friendly neighbors to block your move… hehe…
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Chevy’s super cruise is the best self driving tech out there right now. It is truly hands free but only on certain divided highways. If you can wait a year, Ford’s blue cruise will be on the new F150, and that is also supposed to be very good.
Cadillac also has SuperCruise
Yes, my bad, I meant GM not Chevy
I own a Tesla Model 3. My “Autopilot” is very good at lane keeping if the road has well-marked lanes, and the speed-aware (adaptive) cruise control really works well, slowing or speeding up in accordance with the vehicle in front.
Going more auto-driving, “Navigate on Autopilot” really works, particularly on freeways as well as not too winding roads. It will actually drive the car and take the correct exit using turn signals to change lanes and select on/off ramps. The algorithm still hugs (really hugs!) the center line on curvy mountain roads so I don’t use it on them.
Overall, I feel much safer driving with Autopilot engaged, but I do not go “hands-free”. For one thing, the software “wiggles” the steering wheel and if it senses a lack of friction it escalates from visual warnings to loud alarms to slowing down the car to a stop, taking traffic into account. I have experienced the fist two warnings as the friction-sensing sometimes doesn’t sense that I have my hands on the wheel. I have never had it get to the slow down and stop situation as the alarm is LOUD, as I said.
But as everybody has said, there is no such thing (yet) as a hands-free personal vehicle… once there are, there really will be no reason to own your own… just dial up 1-800-come-and-get-me-to-my-destination!
It’s better now than it used to be in the 60s and 70s.
I moved here in 2001 and it used to be better
My overall observation after reading many of these comments: When automobiles were first invented, a person needed to be a mechanic to use one. Now, a person doesn’t even need to know how to drive to use one.
Yeah, driving is a lot of work. After all, the driver is controlling 1 - 3 tons of metal, plastic, glass, etc. moving 95 feet per second (65 MPH) across the landscape. In my opinion, anyone who is unwilling to do the work of controlling such a situation should not be allowed to operate a vehicle. (Notice that I say “operate” not “drive.”)
Driving is work ?? Seriously , one can almost drive coast to coast with one hand . Now driving on public roads is a resposibility not to be taken lightly.
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True…Rural driving can be very easy. Driving in a City or traffic like Boston is a lot of work.
Also driving in snow or heavy rain can be a lot of work.
I’m including mental work when I say “a lot of work.” I meant it in the sense that it should be a lot of work, that a driver should devote his or her full attention (mental work) to the task. I live in a rural area, and I pay attention (mental work) to what’s going on around me. Animals sometimes appear on the road; farm equipment moves slowly; branches fall from trees.
As for the physical work, there would be very little traffic on our roads if we disallowed automatic transmissions and power steering. Hardly any physical effort required to drive these days.
We are at level 3 until you consider snow and ice,then we are back to level one. I will not live to see practical seld driving cars. Too bad, I could use one.
Yesterday a Tesla hit a Highway Patrol car in Orlando. The trooper was helping the driver of a disabled vehicle, had his lights on. The Tesla driver was letting the Tesla drive itself. Apparently Tesla’s are not aware of Florida’s move over law.
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Tesla’s not the only one. And I’d think this was a better-defined situation:
Toyota Suspends Self-Driving Buses After Paralympic Games Accident (businessinsider.com)
Please link to your source that there have been 9 Tesla self-driving fatalities. I can’t find it.
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I think some of these crashes are because the driver just let the system take over.
Canada Tesla driver charged over ‘napping while speeding’ - BBC News