Submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world [bot] to technology@lemmy.world
Turquoise taillights tell you this Mercedes is driving autonomously::California and Nevada have approved a test of the new light color.
Kinda wish we’d just leave blue (or off-variants like turquoise) lights for emergency vehicles only.
I like the idea of an indicator, just not the execution.
Emergency vehicles’ lights blink and are on the roof. Using the same color for multiple lights isn’t an issue; see: breaking lights and tail lights.
Also judging by the picture it’s more of a white-blue than the bright blue used by emergency vehicles.
They can’t be blue which is why they chose turquoise.
Depends on the state. You must live in one of the relatively sane ones.
I live in Oklahoma, where it’s either legal or not enforced. Tow trucks, construction vehicles, you name it. Blue lights everywhere. And not turquoise or some other “technically not blue” loophole color, but like “they bought their overhead lights from a cop car manufacturer and stuck it on their roof as is” solid fucking blue.
I hate it.
I’ve been asking why cars don’t have more obvious visual indicators since I was like 8 years old.
It’s pretty weird that we’re basically just working with 2 sets of lights and blinkers at this point.
For AV’s specifically, a pretty significant/obvious missed feature is some indicator that the car “sees” you. Pedestrians make eye contact with drivers to check if crossing is safe. How is there no equivalent for AV’s??? It’s such an obvious miss.
It’s pretty weird that we’re basically just working with 2 sets of lights and blinkers at this point.
From a usability standpoint, you want to keep emergency signals simple and VERY consistent. Brake lights need to be a solid red for a very good reason.
On a similar theme, every time I get caught in stop and go traffic I wish we had tail lights that indicated letting off the gas. Like an orange light to say, “I’m no longer accelerating but I haven’t applied the brake yet.” I feel like everyone could coordinate traffic flow better with a little extra information, but I fear (much like these turquoise lights and adaptive cruise control) assholes will just game the system anyway to ruin everything.
Especially with a lot of new EVs on the road that use regenerative breaking if your foot is off the gas.
If it’s a Mercedes, that will be a subscription value-add feature. It’s like Boeing with safety features being value-add.
I feel this is just painting a target on self driving cars for luddites.
If the autopilot without turquoise lights does something dumb, the driver is just another idiot, oh well. If the autopilot with turquoise lights does something dumb, all self driving cars are the devil.
Don’t know why you’re downvoted. This is an honest possibility. They already coalroll cyclists and Priuses.
I’m thinking they should be worth half points in games of chicken…
Why not a colour that isn’t already on emergency vehicles? Why not green or purple, something that is clearly distinguishable?
Red and green are hard to distinguish by many color blind people.
As are blue/purple.
It was approved by the states where it is legal, aka california and nevada.
My buddy had a car with green and purple lights but was a restored hearse - like the Ghostbusters car - and it was fucking fabulous.
I could understand why this would be helpful on the front of a car, but I don’t understand why this would be helpful on the back of a car.
For those who are driving behind them? I’m not sure what you’re actually confused about.
Why does knowing that it’s driving autonomously help the driver behind them?
It’s a genuine thought, but it is that as it stands, autopilot may behave erratically and it would be good to inform drivers both in front and to the rear. Emergency collision avoidance brake systems are already known to trigger at random
For something that requires far more complex decisions a special colour light in the rear can alert other drivers that various maneuvers could be taken automatically, such as a decision to change into your lane, normally or in an emergency.
Emergency collision avoidance brake systems are already known to trigger at random
So? They also brake suddenly when a kid runs out onto the road in front of them. Anyone following should have enough of a space cushion to get hard on the brakes and avoid hitting them. Or at least avoid hitting them very hard.
I guess I’m not seeing it as being all that different from emergency collision avoidance systems in cars with drivers in terms of drivers behind them. I hate to be dense about this, but I’m just not seeing why any of those maneuvers would make a difference to the driver behind the car driving autonomously if it was being driven by a human or not. Don’t you have to take the same actions regardless? I’m not suggesting Mercedes not do it. I’m sure people much smarter than me have figured out why this is important.
Maybe all cars with collision avoidance need to have these lights too?
Look at the pictures in the article. They’re in the front too.
Oh boy, now when I get hit as a pedestrian I’ll know it was the car and not the rich person!
Would light placement be better like… Idk… Lit up license places, or wheel wells, or something? I guess not because some states already allow that stuff…
The moment it’s going to hit something, the lights will turn of
tsonfeir@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I wish they had this for my adaptive cruise control so people in front of me would know that’s as fast as I’m going
SpaghettiYeti@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Or people behind know you’re not jamming on the breaks when someone is or has already turned, it’s just the car doing it…