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by fennecbutt 107 days ago
>People can completely immobilize the vehicles by standing in front of them

This is true of any vehicle lmao. Someone can stand in front of your vehicle and prevent you from proceeding and there's not a thing you can do about it.
2 comments
AngryData 107 days ago
With an angry human behind the wheel you can't be assured they won't hit you on purpose or even accidentally clip you swerving around you. With a robot car designed to maximize safety, you don't really have to worry. Even if they started making robot taxis drive like assholes, the maximum payout for suing a robo taxi company for getting hit is WAY higher than some rando on the road. The guy you pissed off and ran you over for standing in the road might have just got out from a 15 year prison sentence, hates the world, and have a net worth of -$70,000, and isn't going to earn you anything besides a life long injury.
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Detrytus 107 days ago
A human driver would just get out of their car and beat the crap out of you, something that Waymo is not capable of (yet).
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fennecbutt 107 days ago
No they wouldn't.

I certainly wouldn't. I'm a short gay guy, plus even if I was big I don't want an assault charge; standing in front of my car doesn't give me a legal right to assault someone. From a legal standpoint (in most places) it's a deadlock.

Not every guy is big and strong and capable of or wanting to do violence.

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SlinkyOnStairs 106 days ago
You wouldn't, but they key is that the cyclist/pedestrian doesn't know it's you.

Say it's 5% of drivers who are maniacs, one encounters many many cars, and the cost of misjudging this situation is "grievous injury". So the end result is people will give way to cars even when they don't have to.

> Not every guy is big and strong and capable of or wanting to do violence.

This is structurally comparable to the way women treat "all men" as "potentially violent". It's not about you per-se, just a consequence of the group you cannot be immediately separated from.

Speaking of, that's the other half. Sure you're a normal guy. You don't want an assault change. The tradeoff changes when you are at risk, when violence is being done to you. (Hence the harassment-of-women example)

Sure you're not gonna try to murder the person outside like the road-raging maniacs, but when your safety is on the line, driving dangerously close past them is on the table.

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fennecbutt 100 days ago
With the harassment of women example are you trying to say that women are more at risk of receiving violence? Because boy do I have a (not so) surprising statistic for you.
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