Mercedes-Benz debuts turquoise exterior lights to indicate the car is self-driving
www.techspot.com
Most street legal vehicles utilize a combination of three colored lights: white for headlights and reverse lights, red for tail and brake lights, and orange for blinkers....

Mercedes-Benz debuts turquoise exterior lights to indicate the car is self-driving | A visual indicator for other drivers::undefined

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      873·
      11 months ago

      Eh, it’s probably good to have regardless?

      It’s less about being careful around the car and more about how you might interact with it. For example, honking the horn or flashing your beams wouldn’t have the same effect. On that note, it might be nice to have some way of telling a self driving car to temporarily use elevated sensors or something, the same way a horn tells a driver that something is wrong. As long as there’s a way to prevent abuse of the system

      I don’t know much about these lights, but we COULD use some new standards in general with how many things have changed with cars in recent years. Brake lights on electric vehicles being another thing to consider.

      That “gentle horn” everyone wants being another

      • Synthead@lemmy.worldEnglish
        104·
        11 months ago

        You’re still the driver in the self-driving car. If someone honks, you have pedals and a wheel in front of you. It always comes down to driver neglect. It’s like blaming the cruise control for speeding, but giving cruise control more responsibilities.

        • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
          7·
          11 months ago

          The standard should endure past this stage. It’s not necessary now, but it would be good to start getting used to some kind of a symbol now

          Eventually when cars move past this stage, then we’ll need it

        • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
          5·
          11 months ago

          Today, sure.
          But in 20-50 years, switching to manual driving may be a whole process. It may even be illegal in a full self driving car. In an environment of mixed automated and manual driving, having indicator lights for the autos makes a lot of sense.

    • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      471·
      11 months ago

      As a Level 3 system, the driver is permitted to take their hands off the wheel, their feet off the pedals, and divert their attention away from the road. […]

      The turquoise markers will alert other drivers to the fact that your vehicle is driving itself, so hopefully they won’t be alarmed if they see you doing other things while behind the wheel.

    • Postcard64@lemmy.worldEnglish
      362·
      11 months ago

      To play the devil’s advocate: early cars needed a guy with a flag im front of them because people were used to horses and carriages and not automobiles. After a while that stopped being a thing.

      But yeah, self driving cars are not really ready.

    • Kbobabob@lemmy.worldEnglish
      342·
      11 months ago

      warning lights

      Lol, this is like calling the turn signals warning lights. Letting others know something about your driving isn’t a warning, it’s just an indicator.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      There are warning signs to indicate people learning to drive in ex-Soviet countries (such yellow triangles to put behind the glass), even though they are driving with an instructor.

      Now when I think about it, it’s been some time since I’ve seen that sign.

      • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
        9·
        11 months ago

        Somewhat similarly in the Netherlands, in case you fail your practical driving exam three times you still get a license but you can only drive cars marked with special yellow number plates.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.comEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        They’re pretty common in the US as well, but it’s just a sign that says “student driver”.

        I’ve also seen orange triangles used in vehicles like horse-drawn carriages that can’t go as fast as regular traffic, mostly in connection to Amish people.

      • firadin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        71·
        11 months ago

        How about we:

        1. Don’t let random customers test it and instead use heavily trained, specialized test drivers
        2. Require permitting and, e.g., an obstacle course before letting a company’s software be randomly updated and thrown on the road?

        Why is there this constant false dichotomy implying that the only way to test self driving cars is a wild west of no regulation?

        And also who said that self driving cars are safer than humans? Tesla’s numbers are all statistical lies (in fact Teslas were recently shown to have the most accidents), Cruise just shutdown in SF because they were a liability, and Waymo is heavily limited in its time/weather/areas for driving.

          • FierySpectre@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            The teslas having the most crashes I did see pass by on my news feed too. It doesn’t mean that because teslas have self driving and teslas crash the most that this means the self driving tech is the reason for it though. Correlation does not imply causation.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            You literally just presented that false dichotomy in a previous comment. Don’t try to gaslight us.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Sure. But we’re jumping into the deep end by legally allowing the driver to be exempt from distracted driving laws. There’s a big difference between testing the technology and relying on the technology.

    • kuneho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1319·
      11 months ago

      🤦

      if we need warning lights for ANYTHING, the humanity is just not ready.