[throwaway0a5e]

Then you'll just have a car stopped in a lane until someone takes pity on it. That isn't an acceptable solution either.

The solution is to figure out what the traffic rule is based on what the other traffic is doing. But that introduces other pitfalls if you don't do it right.

[darkwizard42]

I mean this is what happens to folks as they try to get into a one-lane exit, someone has to let you in.

I guess one benefit of more autonomous vehicles might be cooperation between vehicles to greatly reduce traffic and congestion in these sorts of situations

[asdff]

The big isssue with lane merging is that you have to be assertive and risky in cities or you are just going to be trapped and no one will let you in. You have to almost dare cars to hit you in order to force yourself to have space. I can't imagine a self driving car ever doing that well. It's an entire dance.

[danenania]

It’s quite a safe assumption that no one wants to get into a crash if they can possibly avoid it, so perhaps all that’s necessary to calculate when a car can “safely” be cut off is whether they will have time to stop, even if it’s an abrupt and unpleasant stop? It’s not pretty, but it’s the same calculation human drivers make all the time in these situations.

[throwaway0a5e]

It's more complicated than that. You have to also figure out with few false negatives who has no idea WTF they're doing and not cut them off.

[darkwizard42]

I mean humans do this and probably a high majority of the time make the merge with both parties unscathed. I also do not agree that you are REALLY paying much attention to who you are cutting off. Generally the process is: look for a gap sufficiently close to your exit, swoop in, if its too tight, keep going...till eventually you just stop and wait till you get the gap.

[lallysingh]

Why not? They are insured and need to function. A random selection of assertiveness can keep the humans from challenging the cars too much.