Google cars drive like your grandma - they're never the first off the line at a stop light, they don't accelerate quickly, they don't speed, and they never take any chances with lane changes (cut people off, etc.).
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Google car drive like your grandma
1. I just want to share some observations. Also, I don't work for Google or any
other autonomous vehicle company - I just happen to live in Mountain View, CA
and I've shared the road with SD cars for the past year or so.
I see no less than 5 self-driving cars every day. 99% of the time they're the
Google Lexuses, but I've also seen a few other unidentified ones (and one that
said BOSCH on the side). I have never seen one of the new "Google-bugs" on the
road, although I've heard they're coming soon. I also don't have a good way to
tell if the cars were under human control or autonomous control during the
stories I'm going to relate.
Anyway, here we go: Other drivers don't even blink when they see one. Neither do
pedestrians - there's no "fear" from the general public about crashing or
getting run over, at least not as far as I can tell.
Google cars drive like your grandma - they're never the first off the line at a
stop light, they don't accelerate quickly, they don't speed, and they never take
any chances with lane changes (cut people off, etc.).
Google cars seem to be a little overly-cautious at intersections where
visibility is limited: Think a T-intersection where a big truck or a bush blocks
visibility for the road that needs to turn either left or right. The Google car
I saw inched forward very slowly with a lot of pauses, as if it was stopping to
get its bearings even though it obviously hadn't pulled forward enough to "see"
anything. It appeared very safe, but if I had been behind it I probably would
have been annoyed at how long it took to actually commit to pull out and turn.
Google cars are very polite to pedestrians. They leave plenty of space. A Google
car would never do that rude thing where a driver inches impatiently into a
crosswalk while people are crossing because he/she wants to make a right turn.
However, this can also lead to some annoyance to drivers behind, as the Google
car seems to wait for the pedestrian to be completely clear. On one occasion, I
saw a pedestrian cross into a row of human-thickness trees and this seemed to
throw the car for a loop for a few seconds. The person was a good 10 feet out of
the crosswalk before the car made the turn.
It's safe to cut off a Google car. I ride a motorcycle to work and in California
motorcycles are allowed to split lanes (i.e., drive in the gap between lanes of
cars at a stoplight, slow traffic, etc.). Obviously I do this at every
opportunity because it cuts my commute time in 1/3.
Once, I got a little caught out as the traffic transitioned from slow moving
back to normal speed. I was in a lane between a Google car and some random truck
and, partially out of experiment and partially out of impatience, I gunned it
and cut off the Google car sort of harder than maybe I needed too... The car
handled it perfectly (maybe too perfectly). It slowed down and let me in.
However, it left a fairly significant gap between me and it. If I had been
behind it, I probably would have found this gap excessive and the lengthy
slowdown annoying. Honestly, I don't think it will take long for other drivers
to realize that self-driving cars are "easy targets" in traffic.
Overall, I would say that I'm impressed with how these things operate. I
actually do feel safer around a self-driving car than most other California
drivers.
I think that, inevitably, non-self driving cars will eventually be banned from
the roads to let SD cars operate at their full potential (which personally I'm
not thrilled about as I'm a car-nut and I love to drive). Perhaps an aftermarket
transmitter could be included in non-SD cars*? Something to warn SD cars of your
location so they can anticipate you cutting them off or you having the right of
way through an intersection with limited visibility.
The takeaway? I give SD cars 5 stars. Would buy. *You read it here first folks!
Someday 5 years from now when you're mandated to buy one of these for your 2015
Camry you'll know where the idea came from.
