[draugadrotten]

I was once driving on a road I could not see at all. It was at night, in a blizzard on the road from Denver to Vail. It didn't take long until I was following the two red lights of the bus in front of me. As a human, I knew I could drive safely where the bus had been driving seconds ago. A self-driving car would have... tell me.

[rossjudson]

Pulled over, like you should have done.

I've been exactly where you were, driving the Coq highway in British Columbia at night in a blizzard, following two red dots in front of me. I had (mandatory) snow tires on a rear wheel drive BMW. I also had my family in the car.

It was probably the single stupidest thing I've ever done driving a car.

[soared]

You can’t pull over in that situation unless you want to get your car stuck, be stuck in the cold all night, and potentially rear ended.

[RandomBacon]

Are you sure those two red lights can see and know where they are going?

[chrisseaton]

> I was once driving on a road I could not see at all. It was at night, in a blizzard on the road from Denver to Vail. It didn't take long until I was following the two red lights of the bus in front of me.

Perhaps you should have pulled over at this point? Maybe that's what an autonomous car would do.

[ghaff]

Pulling over in a snowstorm to the side of the highway can be pretty dangerous too. Once you're in that situation there aren't necessarily great alternatives.

[dev_tty01]

Yeah, I think people who believe that pulling over is an easy solution may not have been in one of these situations. It can come up quickly and there may be no exit for miles. Pull over into what? The snow bank on the side of the road? Now you are a hazard for everyone else coming along behind you. Sometimes you just have to make it work as best you can until the circumstances change.

[chrisseaton]

Why is any traffic moving in conditions this bad? Just stop.

[dev_tty01]

Again, I assume you've never experienced this. Storms can come up fast in the mountains and be very localized. As I, and the previous poster mentioned, it can be more dangerous to stop sometimes.

[chrisseaton]

If you can't see, then it's always safest to just stop rather than driving on, potentially off the edge of a cliff.

[stale2002]

How about "Dont use the self driving mode during a snowstorm. Make the human drive".

That sounds like it solves the situation nicely.

[ghaff]

That definitely works. It just means that if there is a possibility of a snowstorm or other circumstance that self-driving doesn't work, you now require a driver who can take over control. Which is fine. It just eliminates the robo-taxi use case of self-driving which is what a lot of people seem to care about.