I wonder if just having a color coded indicator bar, or a unique icon that pops up would work better than a text-based alert.
This will be amazing. Even if it saves one life (and it will likely save many), it’s a very welcome change
Agreed. Don’t understand why people use Google Maps over Waze unless you’re not in a car.
I used to use Waze, but got tired of it sending me through back streets and turns to save only a minute - problem was, those slower back streets and waiting at junctions ended up taking longer.
Google Maps on the other hand will offer more sane routes, and only send me down back streets where the saving is more than say 4 or 5minutes.
Also, Waze made my phone HOT!
I’m sure Waze used to say that where you know better, use your own initiative rather than blindly follow a machine.
There are settings in Waze to turn off the problems that you encountered. Apps change of you’re lucky. Maybe I’m wrong about maps today; I try it every now and again. Maps is all I use for public transport and walking.
Loving the last comment: nothing like an app to make an old phone, sparkle like new. 😁
Not sure an alert to a history of crashes is great. Now people will take their eyes off the road to read a notification instead of watching the road
I had to turn off the distracting lane assist/warning feature because of so many false positives from inconsistent lane markings, especially in construction zones.
A few warnings is great, too many are so distracting.
What do you mean? Is it a bad idea to prompt people driving vehicles moving over 70 mph as to whether there was a speed trap? But then how will the next people know that need to stop speeding for the next couple miles before they can speed again without recourse?
In my country there’s sometimes signs that say something like “caution: accident prone area”. I never thought it distracting when driving.
I’m amused at the notion of engineers putting up signs warning everybody that they’re shit at their jobs.
Edit: I’m a former traffic engineer myself, so I’m entitled to say things like that. Frankly, our entire profession is doing it wrong and needs to be reformed.
Shit, it really feels like his point is spot on. If engineers are trying to design for safety, they’re doing a horrible job at it.
I can’t think of a single road I’ve driven down in the US that felt safe for anyone. Too much traffic weaving in and out and through merges and intersections, basically no safe bike lanes, and foot paths so close to fast-moving traffic that you feel like you’re in a wind tunnel.
How does something so endemic like this get fixed?
I present for your consideration the case of September 3rd, 1967: the day Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right side. One would expect that the incredibly distracting process of overcoming a lifetime of learned habit would be a recipe for chaos, but in fact there were significantly fewer accidents than average on the day of the change [1].
As it turns out, the danger of complacency outweighs the danger of distraction. It does not particularly matter where one directs their focus if they are not driving mindfully. In a more natural environment, we’re good enough at identifying dangerous situations to pay attention when it matters, but roads are not a natural environment. For every alert person briefly annoyed by an audio notification there will be at least as many pedal-pushers too relaxed to even form coherent memories, let alone engage in defensive driving.[2]
The effect was not permanent, so I will be ignoring the alternative explanation that the new side was somehow massively superior to the extent required to explain the discrepancy. Ditto to the idea that fewer people were driving that one particular day, because the effect did last longer than a single day. ↩︎
Of course, just because someone’s driving absent-mindedly doesn’t mean that they’re stupid. They’ll catch on if you just buzz their phone randomly because you think it’ll prevent crashes. The driver needs to believe that the danger is real which is something that the app has to earn by not being manipulative. ↩︎
Now if only every state did vehicle inspections and enforced the laws…
Or better yet, if only engineers did their fucking jobs and fixed negligently-designed areas to be less dangerous.
Edit: I say that as an engineer criticizing my own profession from the inside, by the way.
Sure, but a lot more crashes are caused by poor design (including design that facilititates law-breaking) than mechanical failures or lack of enforcement.
In particular, I want to address the latter: trying to stop people from speeding by having more police patrols simply doesn’t work. The only thing that does work is physically changing the design of the street (narrowing lanes, etc.) to make it scarier and less comfortable for drivers to go too fast. That’s the engineers’ responsibility, not law enforcement’s.
Isn’t it a little late to alert someone of a crash after it’s already a historical fact?
