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arijunyesterday at 9:53 PM1 replyview on HN

But how many of those crashes not caused by inattention could have been avoided with less idiocy and more defensive driving? I mean, yes, we can’t see as well in fog, but that’s why you should slow down


Replies

kube-systemyesterday at 10:22 PM

Again, I'm still not saying that humans don't make bad decisions. I'm saying that, unequivocally, they also get into accidents while paying attention and being careful, as a result of misinterpretation or failure of their senses. These accidents are also common, for example:

* someone parking carefully, misjudges depth perception, bumps an object

* person driving at night, their eyes failed to perceive a poorly lit feature of the road/markings/obstacles

* person driving and suddenly blinded by bright object (the sun, bright lights at night)

* person pulling out in traffic who misinterprets their depth perception and therefore misjudges the speed of approaching traffic

* people can only focus their eyes at one distance at a time, and it takes time to focus at a different distance. It is neither unsafe nor unexpected for humans to check their instruments while driving -- but it can take the human eye hundreds of milliseconds to focus under normal circumstances -- If you look down, focus, look back up, and focus, as quick as you can at highway speeds, you will have travelled quite a long distance.

These type of failures can happen not as a result of poor decision making, but of poor perception.