Is that how speed limits work in the US? It’s my understanding (elsewhere) that the limit is in enforcement after you past the sign, not at some unspecified distance before it, or when you see it. The sign itself is the only transition point between limits.
Yes that is the way it works in the US, but as a practical matter most people start speeding up as soon as the higher speed limit sign comes into view. And of course conversely they don't start slowing down until they pass the sign posting the slower limit.
Right, but both those things would elsewhere (I’m thinking of the UK) be considered bad driving and you could (and people do) get speeding tickets for this.
I’d expect a self driving car to be more aware of the rules and drive according to the law.
What are “reasonable” rules for autonomous vehicles? Should they stick to the limit literally, so only start accelerating after the increased limit sign? (There will need to be warning signs when a speed limit reduction is ahead to give the vehicle time to comply.)
Would a vehicle speeding up before the sign indicate a failure or error in the system?
It's important to follow the average speed of the traffic you are in, if you keep to the speed limit while driving slower than the average your driving causes a danger on the road by causing people to drive around you and changing lanes and speeds is where accidents happen.
The slow driver isn’t creating the danger though. It’s all the drivers going over that actually create the danger you describe. If everyone just followed the laws, the danger you describe would no longer exist. Normalization if traffic violations is compounding the problem of the danger we face on the roads. So many problems could be solved and so many lives saved if people just followed the laws. The fact that everyone isn’t following the laws doesn’t need to be accepted as status quo.
> The fact that everyone isn’t following the laws doesn’t need to be accepted as status quo.
It literally is the status quo. If I were still working on autonomous cars, I'd be much more inclined to work into the true status quo rather than imagine the status quo ought to be different and build towards that.
The status quo is also that people don't pay attention and are rude to pedestrians/cyclists/each other and ignore rules all the time (ever try waiting at an unsignalled crosswalk on a busy 4 lane road?). The one thing that I can't wait for is traffic enforcement by autonomous vehicles.
In Arizona, it is not against the law to drive over the speed limit. But it is against the law to speed, or drive too fast for the given conditions. Driving over the limit is evidence that you might be speeding.
If everyone else is driving above the limit, and you aren't, you are the one causing the danger.
