X-Post Bicycling "Bikes May Have To Talk To Self-Driving Cars For Safety's Sake"

[MineralMan]

41. I expect that I might, at least in some areas, but I don't

expect I'll see very many of them. I plan to give any I see a very wide berth, too, just as I do drivers who have a cell phone in their hand.

I'm not just a tech writer. I'm also a programmer. I owned my own software company back in the day. I don't believe I've ever seen any piece of software that didn't contain some bugs and that didn't miss anticipating some sort of dumbass user error and dealing with it in a proper way. None one.

Operating a vehicle on a public road is an analog thing, not a digital one. It's actually impossible to predict all of the possible conditions and behaviors of other vehicles. Alert human beings, driving, can often react properly to things they had never anticipated happening. That's because the computers in their heads are extremely adaptive analog devices.

AI has improved. However, when you mix autonomous vehicles with human activities, there are going to be conflicts that were never anticipated or have been programmed for. That's why this whole bicycle thing is so important. As a human driver, I've had to deal with all sorts of bicycle, pedestrian and animal behavior on the road. Often, my anticipation of unexpected actions is the thing that has kept be from accidents.

Access to roadways is uncontrolled, except on limited access freeways. At any time, an object, person or animal may emerge onto the road, often from behind some obstruction. Sometimes, drivers can anticipate this by observing off-road conditions and sometimes not.
For the self-driving community to suggest that all bicyclists must have some sort of transponder is an admission that they have no way to deal with that otherwise.