Re:G.M. Unveils Its Driverless Cars, Aiming to Lead the Pack
by diggernet on Thursday November 30, 2017 @01:16AM
(#15813852)
My car has adaptive cruise control. It automatically paces the car ahead with about a 2-second gap. It is absolutely wonderful for reducing stress and workload in heavy traffic. But the other cars... Someone will see the gap and race around me to fill it, as if I wasn't driving exactly the same speed as the car ahead. Causing my car to slow a bit to rebuild the gap. The next car back sees that and decides the first car passed because I'm an obstacle, and copies them. And so on. Until I'm driving 5mph slower than traffic, with a constant stream flowing around me.
Re:G.M. Unveils Its Driverless Cars, Aiming to Lead the Pack
by Noumenon72 on Thursday November 30, 2017 @08:18PM
(#15821203)
That is not the steady state. When a car gets in front of you and eliminates your three second gap, it does so so it can continue at the speed of the traffic ahead. For you to be limited to 20 mph, the other cars would have to get in front and slow down. I feel that in practice I never have to do more than take your foot off the gas once in a while.
I think eventually you'll get into a steady state solution where you'll be limited to 20mph on a 65mph freeway because that's all the room you'll be given - if you follow the rule of law exactly.
Instead, most bay area drivers keep about 40-70ft between cars when going 70mph. Juuuust enough to react in time to an emergency stop. It's a little silly but it's the only way you won't get cut off constantly. Only other way to not get cut off is to go quite slow and be behind traffic speeds.