Low-hanging fruit

[totient]

Dear anyone I know at a company that's working on self-driving cars,

I write to you as a person who regularly rides a bicycle in the Boston area to say that I think what you are doing is great and I look forward to seeing the results of your work very soon. You don't have very far to go before your cars can drive better than the drivers here! But what I am most looking forward to most of all is that unlike Boston drivers, self-driving cars use their turn signals! In fact I wonder if you couldn't implement self-signaling cars right now. Many drivers are already running a navigation app on their phone and have a bluetooth connection to their car. The phone knows when the driver is going to make a turn and these days the car's computer has all the connections it needs to be able to connect that to the strange yellow flashing things on the sides of the cars the purpose of which people around here don't seem to understand. Maybe you could even use the blinky things on the dashboard (and the handy synchronized audio feedback) to help guide drivers so they don't miss their turns.

Much love,

Me


PS: Sorry for spoiling the patent idea if you hadn't thought of this.

Comments

[tpau]

... i constantly disregard what my gps says to do and force it to recalculate though....

[cogitationitis]

When I lived in RI, they did a study of one of Providence's busiest intersections. Only about half of the drivers turning used a turn signal. Of those, a quarter used the wrong one.

[ceo]

Should also teach them about trackstands.

[miss_chance]

Yesterday I almost got hit by someone who was signalling for a right turn onto the street I was on. I went straight and so did they, at full speed. Maybe they already had self-signaling and ignored the gps.