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A comment on Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving Car Fatality in Arizona. Parent comment

Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by CamperBob2 on Monday March 19, 2018 @10:19PM (#16625476)
Why not? The range between 1-10 MPH over the speed limit is statistically the safest. (Yes, I know, good luck finding a citation for a study I read 20 years ago...) It's hard to argue against the notion that you're safest when you keep up with prevailing traffic. That means that self-driving cars shouldn't be programmed to go slower.

Speed limits are usually too low. Often they have nothing to do with engineering or safety considerations, but are primarily revenue-oriented. If the advent of autonomous vehicles forces regulators to listen to the engineers for a change, that will be an unalloyed Good Thing.

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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by URSpider94 on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:32AM (#16626585)
Man, sorry for the downvotes. This link -> http://www.lsp.org/pdf/troopc85thSpeed.pdf doesn't include any references, unfortunately, but the statements are that:

-- 55% of drivers regularly exceed the speed limit, meaning that the speed limit represents the 45th percentile speed

-- driving between the 50th and 90th percentile speeds is the safest

Taken together, driving at the speed limit is significantly unsafe.

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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by CamperBob2 on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @06:33PM (#16633417)
Man, sorry for the downvotes.

You have to remember that many people on here probably don't own a car, or necessarily even hold a driver's license. They most likely either live at home or at school, or take a bus to work (NTTAWWT).

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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by chopin on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:28AM (#16627901)
As far as I understand your comment, driving at the speed limit is unsafe because everybody is speeding. Sounds like a self-fulfilling thing. Maybe it would be even safer if the majority would obey the speed limit?
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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by URSpider94 on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @09:42AM (#16628437)
Did you read the link I posted? Theres lots of empirical data out there that says that drivers drive the same speed on a road, regardless of the posted limit. That speed is based on their judgment of the road - sight lines, shoulder width, sharpness of curves, etc.
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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by TheCoelacanth on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:10PM (#16631607)
People speed because of poor road design and poor enforcement of speed limits.
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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by CamperBob2 on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:11PM (#16633687)
Just curious (and not trying to challenge or be confrontational), how long have you held a driver's license?
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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by CamperBob2 on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @06:30PM (#16633394)
And the idea that the speed limit itself is the problem... is there any room in your worldview for that possibility?

Why not lower it to 5 MPH on a nationwide basis? Think of all the lives that would save!

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Re:Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving C... by jschwartzi on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @06:57AM (#16627411)
Speed limits in cities and residential areas may also be set to reduce road noise in the neighborhood.
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