it appears you're correct... but it is a much easier problem and one that i argue has massive bang for the buck _today_.
robotaxis will probably happen at scale some day. but for now, "nap through bad traffic mode" would be pretty excellent both in terms of safety and utility.
Phantom traffic jams are so common, where things aren’t moving as fast as they should because people keep slamming on their brakes and scaring the people behind them (who in turn do the same). Even if the original reason was good I imagine it makes a lot of real life traffic jams worse.
But if the cars are all driving themselves, wouldn’t they avoid that? I wonder if traffic jams would get smaller just from the lack of that one issue.
yeah, i've daydreamed about that. if enough cars opt in you could implement cooperative flow control algorithms.
i think this has already been shown to help with advisory lane specific speed limits that are common in some parts of europe and the us. (the lit adaptive per lane speed limit signs that appear every mile or two.)
even a few vehicles that drive intelligently in traffic could potentially have huge effects.
and i'll say it again: why buy a fun vehicle like a tesla or a benz if you're just going to have the computer drive it in a way that the manufacturer's legal team is comfortable with?
unless, of course, you're stuck in traffic. then let the lawyers drive and take a nap.
Some years ago, I read an article claiming the opposite. I could not find it again, but the main arguments, as I remember them where, that a) if self-driving cars drive according to the law, they drive slower and with greater distance from the car in front than human drivers, and b) for people to feel comfortable inside a self-driving car, the car must accelarate and break more smoothly than a human driver does, who actively participats in what is going on around him or her. The maximum throughput of a road would therefore become smaller and thus, ceteris paribus, traffic jams become more frequent.
