Tesla should treat a stop sign according to the law. However, the
computer is acting logically according to the actual situation. I would
suspect that there logically should be a yield sign instead of the stop
sign.
In most civilized parts of the world, stop signs are _extremely_ scarce.
In the US, they are the default at most intersections. I can only recall
seeing half a dozen stop signs in all of Auckland. No doubt there are
more, but they are used sparely because they are needed extremely rarely.
I suspect this is to generate revenue in the form of traffic tickets in
the US. Only in the US do the ticket revenues go directly to the police
departments. In most civilized countries, they go to the national
coffers, which removes (most) of the obvious conflict of interest.
Obviously, someone has to yield the right of way to someone else at an
intersection. In sensible countries, they use "yield" signs. Only in the
few intersections that have visibility difficulties, or some unusual
hazard do they place the very rare stop sign. They often don't have any
signs at all, where you apply whoever standard yield law/procedure. It
all works wonderfully with few traffic accidents. Traffic flows much
more smoothly and efficiently with yield signs instead of stop signs.
When folks in the US do a rolling stop (often called a Hollywood
stop,) they are doing the logical thing. They have slowed sufficiency to
ensure that they can proceed without violating the right-of-way.
<soap box mode off>
Bill D.
On 2/2/2022 11:39 AM, Peri Hartman via EV wrote:
Ok, my opinion. I think one should look at the intent of the law
requiring a full stop at a stop sign. From what I learned, that is to
allow getting a full view of the intersection before proceeding. If
you don't come to a full stop, you might not notice a pedestrian
starting to cross. Or, if the cross traffic doesn't stop, you might
miss an oncoming vehicle.
So, for human drivers, a full stop makes sense.
In the future, good sensors and self-driving software should be able
to determine if a full stop is necessary. The software can look in all
directions at once and doesn't need nearly as much time as a human to
make a decision. If the view of cross traffic is blocked, it will need
to be ready to stop, but may not need to completely stop once at the
intersection. I can imagine that full stops and, perhaps, even stop
signs themselves will eventually become relics.
In the mean time, I think Tesla's should obey the law. Once Musk can
prove his vehicles don't have to fully stop, maybe he can lobby to get
laws changed.
Peri
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