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by nystorm 3039 days ago
In the Illinois Motorcycle handbook it definitely states that just because you and another driver make eye contact, that doesn't mean they actually see you. Either way, as a motorcyclist, I'm not gonna count on eye contact to make sure of my safety. I ride and drive defensively at all times. I assume the worst in most situations.
1 comments

> I assume the worst in most situations.

If that was really true you would never ride a motorcycle.

Eyeballing the other guy is no guarantee of anything, but it provides quite a lot of information about the risk you face in the interaction. I think we would miss it when dealing with fully autonomous vehicles, and that the vehicles might add something to tell you they see you. I've done some work on this idea in the lab with mobile robots.

> If that was really true you would never ride a motorcycle.

This is such a garbage statement. We check our parachutes twice before jumping, and whilst not jumping is inherently safer - having decided to jump you can still protect yourself from risks inherent in the activity.

If you assume the worst, there'd be no point checking the parachute. You assume it will fail.

Since this is not how people really behave, we are very rarely actually assuming the worst.