Huh, I had no idea this was a thing that would become mandatory. I think 3 of our cars have AEB. I like the idea of it, though I don't think I have ever experienced an AEB event - though I have seen the warnings a few times.

Cool Beans.

Not trying to poopoo the idea, automation of driving is almost surely safer than people driving, but IDK if it's there quite yet.

My wife's car has an "Obstacle ahead" warning function, which I have to assume is similar tech to what will be used to engage auto braking. Without fail it lights up and beeps every time on this one road. It's a lazy ~30deg left hand turn with a car parked on the side of the road just at the start of the turn. The car is straight in front of you until you get to the turn, it's not a big leap to think you'll drive into it. But if the tech is unable to figure out this simple scenario....

This is also probably a fallacy, but I have this inkling that all of the assistances and ease of driving in modern cars just gives drivers license to pay attention less. A manual shift Geo Metro needed near constant attention, modern cars not so much.

I think you're on to something there

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

There are a slew of alerting and intervention features that I freakin' love. For example, blind spot detection. This is fantastic, because it intervenes when people make mistakes. I do not think that drivers are necessarily more attentive in less advanced vehicles, and missing a blind spot has been a problem forever. Ditto rear cross traffic. There are some instances that a driver simply cannot see well, and good rear cross traffic is a godsend. Also there is automatic object detecting in reverse. Screens and mirrors do not protect toddlers and toys well enough, but this simple tech can.

Now, when we branch into true automation, I am mixed. I have driven Tesla's FSD, and it is pretty amazing: parking lot to parking lot navigation. But my friend best described it as being like being in a car when you are teaching your 15 year old how to drive. Next step down is hands-free ADAS. I love that, and it is really good now. But yes, it does allow the drivers to check out a little. Then we get down to simple traffic aware cruise control. I doubt anyone would want to revert back to the 2000s and be without that feature again.

I used to think self driving cars were my best chance to avoid being hit by a car, but it seems that tech will continue to take longer than I would have guessed.

On a separate note: can blinky lights send signals (bluetooth?) to tech in a car (truck) to alert driver that there is a non motorized walker/jogger/cyclist ahead?
my brain thinks it would help. maybe the defense of "I didn't see him/her" would be harder to get away with?

Here's an interesting thought exercise... What are the common car vs. rider accidents, and is there already tech available that could prevent, warn, or intervene? For example:

• Car rear-ends bike: AEB could prevent this
• Car coming toward a rider turns in front of rider: Forward collision warning & AEB could warn or prevent
• Car beside a rider turns right: Blind spot detecting could warn or intervene
• Car or rider running an intersection: Not sure if there is a fix for this
• etc...

There's a lot that this tech can help with, but bluetooth detection of other cars has the obvious drawback of spoofing from anyone with some computer knowledge. Don't like cars driving in front of your house? Set up a 'bluetooth obstacle'.

There's a well-publicized theory about self driving cars, jaywalking, and unintended consequences. A self driving car MUST be programmed to avoid collisions with pedestrians, even if those pedestrians aren't supposed to be in the road. (We don't want autonomous cars executing people because the sidewalk is under construction, eg). Pedestrians then know that every car on the road is programmed to not hit them. The main thing stopping jaywalking now is not wanting to get hit by a car. If pedestrians know every car MUST yield to them, they can walk wherever they want will reckless abandon. City streets become essentially locked out for cars (not the worst thing IMO).

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