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Notes -
I get the sense that in 2010 self driving cars were 50% ready. They had the easy cases down. Highway driving in good conditions with clear signage.
By 2020 they have more of the edge cases down, its like they are at 90%. City or neighborhood driving, sometimes unclear signage. Unexpected obstacles like pedestrians. Weather, very unclear signage or strange roads, and the disconnect between written vs actual rules of the road.
They are over 95% ready, maybe even 99% but their remains basically impossible use cases. Times when human drivers literally just muddle along and guess at what the correct behavior is, or make it up as they go. This works fine at an individual level. The times when you have to do something truly strange and out of the ordinary are not that common. A construction crew is out early without their signage guys and I'm expected to just carefully drive around them. Or take a totally different route through the neighborhood. Or I'm doing christmas shopping and a bunch of shoppers treat the parking lot like an extra wide sidewalk, and I just need to weave in and out of them slowly to make any progress. Or a pedestrian waiting at a crosswalk looking like they are about to cross, but they wave me through, because they are waiting for someone to catch up with them further back on the sidewalk.
Its minor stuff and easy for a thinking and reasoning adult to figure out many of the situations. But you can't exactly codify it as rules of the road. No one writes laws about it. Accidents related to it are rare for an individual, but probably become guaranteed with enough mileage.
I've said for a long time that American roads are easy mode for self driving cars. If they start testing things in a place like India with its insane traffic then you should start paying close attention.
Or even a pedestrian who lurks on the sidewalk and deliberately runs in front of the car as an insurance scam.
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