> the “one party is going straight and the other is turning left at a four way” accident
A self-driving motorcycle would solve that problem, because where as a motorcyclists vision is significantly impaired from the helmet, detection systems on the bike can be looking in all directions
[0]: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2015/09/why-we-say-ca...
>, because where as a motorcyclists vision is significantly impaired from the helmet...
This is incorrect. My vision on the bike is not impaired by my helmet. My field of view in a car is more restricted -- and critically in SMIDSY situations, the peripheral field is obstructed by the pillars holding the roof up. SMIDSYs happen when the car fails to give way to the bike; usually this is due to the fact that bikes are small visual targets or unexpected ones. We may mitigate these problems by raising the visual salience of the bike, but we solve them by designing intersections such that they can't happen.
I've never worn a motorcycle helmet, but the visor seems so small that you'd lose some of the peripheral vision.
I agree that it would often be the car at fault, but as a cyclist I wouldn't care who was at fault I'd just want to avoid the crash. I'd only crash into the car if my peripheral vision missed the car.
> we solve them by designing intersections such that they can't happen.
I agree, but I don't want to wait for governments to fix every single bad junction that exists in the world.
As a motorcyclist you have way more situational awareness than other vehicles on the road.
You also quickly learn that other road users are blissfully unaware of you and you drive accordingly.
How? I'm a cyclist who also has to contend with these same problems..
For motorcycles, you mostly only have to ensure turn arrows as well as normal stoplights. Permitting lane-splitting also helps.
The most avoidable accidents are not operator dependent:
- the “one party is going straight and the other is turning left at a four way” accident which is so common it has its own acronym: SMIDSY (Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See Ya)
- right hook at an intersection
That said, if BMW can do things like stabilizing the lean-in when you go into a turn hotter than planned and fail to commit, that might be nice. The solution is “push harder into the turn”, but it’s easy to be scared of this and thus go wide instead.