[jjfoooo4]

Yes. People do in fact safely drive the speed limit.

If "we'll have too many cars on the freeway following the speed limit" ranks as a serious concern, I think we've really lost the plot.

I recently drove by a fatal accident that had just happened on the freeway. A man on the street had been ripped in half, and his body was lying on the road. I can't imagine the scene is all that unlike the 40 thousand other US road deaths that happen every year.

As a driver I'm willing to accept some minor inconvenience to improve the situation. As a rider I trust Waymo's more than human drivers.

[iteria]

It depends on where you are. There was a protest in in Atlanta about the speed limit. What did they do? They got in every. Single. Lane. As did the speed limit. This backed up traffic for miles. It stopped commercial delivery and had ramifications for entire area. The protesters were arrested. For going the legal limit. The speed limit did not change, but there is a reason why it's never enforced.

I've lived in a couple of places where going the speed limit is a whole problem that can cascade outside of just yourself. There is an argument to be made that perhaps then the speed limit shouldn't be that low, but in driving safety is far more important than legality. It will be interesting to see how Waymo handles these realities when it gets to those areas.

[Yizahi]

First of all, while I hear about that protest first time, I'm 99% sure that they were not fines for driving under speed limit, but because of the unreasonable obstruction of the left lanes. This is prohibited probably in all countries, regardless of the limits in use.

Second, it is a widely known issue, that a slower mowing car is causing ripple-like delays far from the car itself. For example when a police car is driving inside the traffic flow. But if most of the cars are following the rules, like 95% of them, then one law abiding Waymo would fit just fine. In EU, with the deluge of speed traps and mobile patrols, most of the cars are driving under the limit, and honestly it feels fine. I'm originally from a country where +20 above was like a norm, and fast cars were +40 or more, so adjusting to EU took some effort. But now I don't even feel the need to speed, especially if it is 140km/h highway (86 m/h)

[robocat]

I'd really love to see some good statistics on the risks of speeding on motorways.

I often wonder about laws that are ostensibly there to prevent dangerous actions, about whether they actually help prevent dangerous driving.

This guy analyses tailgating: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_lR09sjoU Awesome software although he seems biased (e.g. no mention of pedestrians), but he does say that tailgating is much more dangerous than speeding.

I'm interested whether cameras will start to catch dangerous drivers. I regularly seeing drivers do very dangerous things. Yet we have no easy way to train them (for those that care but are unaware), or catch them (for the antisocial that don't care).

[jjfoooo4]

I mean, isn't the most common reason people tailgate is that they're frustrated that a slow driver is in a lane they want to use to drive fast in?

[bluGill]

Not a slow driver in most cases, many slow drivers - all who want to go faster but cannot. There is just so much traffic that you can't go faster, and neither can the person in front of you.

I used to drive 20 under all the time (I achieved 57mpg once doing that) - but since this was an empty rural highway the few cars that were around saw me well in advance and moved over and passed without a problem.

[robocat]

I am surprised that research backs you up... my guess had been that the majority of tailgaters are just arseholes (technical term) so I checked:

  There is substantial research that frustration with a slow driver in a fast lane is a significant factor in aggressive tailgating (as a way to express anger, control, or impatience) to get others to change lanes.

There's a balance between selfish lane-hoggers and selfishly impolite/dangerous tailgaters.

But perhaps research doesn't measure arseholeness?!

For selfish reasons I usually let dangerous tailgaters pass me: I want to avoid the bad outcomes from pissed off aggressive drivers.

If I'm stuck behind someone slow, I usually politely wait or politely flash lights or politely tap horn. I think Tailgating is personally dangerous as a way to signal my displeasure and I value my life highly. Polite drivers generally let one pass, and impolite drivers do whatever the fuck they want.

Regardless, it would be interesting to see stats on how risky tailgating actually is (unfortunately stats are sure to be biased by correlation versus causation).