Oh I don't know. A day out and a stroll along the Promenade Des Anglais might be quite a pleasant detour.

Bring a jacket. It can still get chilly of a morning/evening.

a stroll along the Promenade Des Anglais might be quite a pleasant detour.

Unless they've finished the roadworks, a stroll will definitely be a faster & more pleasant way to negotiate Nice. Better yet, stay in Cannes.

Is that the programmed progression of punishment for pedestrians who don't acknowledge their subservience to the auto-auto? Easier to train the meatsacks..

Actually, I would LOVE to be able to shove quite a number of pedestrians in my city into the middle of traffic and put them out of their my misery.

Quite a good number of pedestrians here refuse to walk on their side of the sidewalk. On a sidewalk that is only wide enough to fit 4 people abreast, almost for sure they will indeed walk 4 people abreast going in their direction, as if others don't even exist.

I had a face-to-face confrontation with one after she managed to walk into me as I carried a package, walking in the opposite direction and pushed all the way to the edge of the sidewalk with my shoulder mere inches from a construction fence.

She had the nerve to yell at me because, of course, I should have moved for her because "[She] have the right to walk wherever I want!". Not only was I on the correct side, everyone in her direction was walking on the opposite side *and* taking up the entire width of the sidewalk to boot.

But I was in the wrong because I didn't move for *her*.

After yelling at one another, her for her entitlement and me because I wouldn't move for her entitlement, she cursed me out behind her back as she walked away and I called her the female dog she acted like.

Oh, I just LOVE visiting the city. /s

"constant reminders on the benefits of respiration,"

Well, it is a habit you don't really want to give up on...

Give it a try, please do... Only three minutes of your life (*) to test a splendid new experience.

(*) or just about 0.00000761% of the average human life span. This time you surely have spare. Driving uses many more orders of magnitude of your lifetime already.

"despite the fact that pedestrianism is the natural state for most of us"

You're not from Los Angeles, then, are you? I have fond memories of a young woman from Los Angeles I worked with, who would drive fifty yards to a convenience store rather than walk. Even in a very car-happy county this stood out as unusual.

To be fair, in the US if you pop out from the office just to go grab some food. Walking along the road outside campuses with no "sidewalks" you are going to get hit the the head with a car.

the motorised vehicle always takes precedence over the pedestrian, despite the fact that pedestrianism is the natural state for most of us

Especially in the Land of the Free (TM) where the motor vehicle lobby invented the abusive term "jaywalking" to describe pedestrians exercising their natural freedoms and managed to get it made into laws. Also in the dictatorial regimes where it's an offence not to use pedestrian crossings and obey the signals.

drive fifty yards to a convenience store rather than walk

In the mid 60s, my mother knew a posh middle-aged lady who would travel in her chauffer-driven Daimler between her big house and the parish church a similar distance away.

>>Also in the dictatorial regimes where it's an offence not to use pedestrian crossings and obey the signals.

Does that include Spain?

I know they had a relatively recent dictator and are now notionally at least a democracy (unless you are Basque or Catalan - let us not go there) but the notion of not using the crossing/obeying the signal being an offence still persists, IIRC (It's been a while)

A friend went to LA as an exchange student. He ended up near Beverly Hills.

His host family didn't smoke, so he went out for a walk down the block. After 5 minutes, a police patrol pulled up and asked him what he was doing? He told them that he wasn't allowed to smoke in the host family's house, so he was going for a walk.

The police told him not to walk on the street, it made the residents nervous! He should go for a walk in the woods behind the houses instead (with the thrill of additional fire hazards from discarded matches and cigarette butts).

A few days later, he was walking through the woods, when a horse mounted police officer came upon him, his comment was, "oh, you must be the German exchange student," and carried on his way!

>> The police told him not to walk on the street

Wasn't this a Ray Bradbury short story? Trying to remember the name...

Fahrenheit (Beretta) 92F ?

The Pedestrian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pedestrian

When I lived in Sacramento (1999), I used to drive down to my mate's factory in Oakland to go for lunch, my first time down there my mate was stuck in a business meeting so I went for a walk.

I managed about a couple of hundred yards before a cop car stopped by me to ask what I was doing, when they heard my English accent they took pains to explain it was a dangerous area, then one of the cops said 'If you are walking in the street the locals might decide you are too dangerous to mess with but don't count on it'.

In the suburbs where I lived, anyone walking would often get the cops called on them.

I doubt any of them would have liked Lewisham or any of several other parts of London at night, you could get mugged by an old lady in some places.

My first thought when I read the article about Teslas not stopping at STOP signs was that they would also do 36 in 30 zone.

Version 2.0 will add the ability to tailgate anyone driving within the speed limit and flash the heaflights.

You can get sound modules for the inside of your car linked to the engine speed. Then you can select Rolls-Royce or Maserati, depending on your fancy (or age), played through the in-car entertainment.

Perhaps self-driving cars could have a similar selector feature but by the type of driver steterotypically driving the brand. See El Reg passim about certain brands of motorcars not needing indicator lights or rear view mirrors because the drivers do not seem to use them.

When somebody tells me a job they're doing is pointless I remind them that there's somebody employed in Germany to fit BMW's* with indicators.

* though I sometimes suspect they've moved to Audi.

I think Alistair was prescient this week.

I had to drive to another site yesterday and took the pool car (Skoda Superb). It was raining and as I was doing 130 in the overtaking lane to pass an HGV, it suddenly decided it would be a brilliant idea to slam on the brakes!

I was cruising along at 130 and suddenly I was thrown forward in the seat as the car rapidly lost speed, with the dash saying "please confirm emergency braking"! I planted the throttle to the floor, to stop being rear-ended by the smartphone gazing twat behind me!

The lane holding software also didn't think pulling out to overtake was a good idea, at times, as well and kept trying to steer me back into the back-end of the HGV I was approaching - and, yes, I had activated the indicator to show my intent.

It was a pleasure to get back into my own car, when I got back. At least it only beeps at me, if I try and change lanes, it doesn't try and kill me.

My first thought when I read the article about Teslas not stopping at STOP signs was that they would also do 36 in 30 zone.

Version 2.0 will add the ability to tailgate anyone driving within the speed limit and flash the heaflights.

Well Tesla seems intent on mimicikng human behavior. In many places, rolling through a stop sign is considiered normal and even named. The louisiana curtsy, texas curtsy are examples of this.

Unfortunately you would have to go back in time for that, the Pyramids now border Cairo city and are almost surrounded by suburbs (it won't take long until there will be modern buildings all around)

Visiting the Pyramids was one of the most disappointing things that I've done, approaching from the Cairo direction.

It's like having Stonehenge on the outskirts of Swindon (or if you know Swindon on one of the P estates).

Then there is the case of the pedestrian who was mowed down by a Uber self-driving car in Arizona. Their programmers, no doubt hired from the same school of douchebaggery as their executives, programmed the car not to slow down because that would inconvenience passengers. The safety driver was busy playing with her cell phone. The NSTB issued a scathing report blaming an "inadequate safety culture", which is putting it mildly. Sometimes moving fast and breaking things means breaking people, to a pulp.

I used to think that Dabbsie wrote his articles based on the videos he linked, and must admit that I thought so today as well, until he switched from Doze to Tesla. When self-driving cars were first talked about seriously, I imagined dozens of pedestrians stepping out into roadways bringing all traffic to a standstill. This article startled me into realizing that if dozens of pedestrians did that, there would instantly be a need for dozens of ambulances.

Icon because

Dozens of Hearses - TFIFY

the single most useful feature that any private vehicle could offer, ever: fully automated reverse parking

I had something purporting to be that very feature on my previous car. I have no idea how well it worked though...on the occasions when I did feel inclined to trust myself to an automated system it fell at the first hurdle by completely failing to recognise anything, no matter how large, as a parking space.

Fully automated reverse parking works very well, though it often uses more forward/backward manoeuvres than necessary, I would normally do it in one backward movement, it takes two or three.

Automated reverse parking fails in the same way as much other automation. It tackles the easy problems (big spaces) and leaves you with the hard ones (spaces only slightly longer than you car).

what you fail to realise is that a large number of people - even in the UK - are incapable of reversing AT ALL - let alone parallel parking into any size space

I wish I was kidding about this and the question is where they got their licenses

The way to deal with this is to offer to assist them, reverse the car into a park and then drop the keys down the nearest gulley trap

"What I don't need is constant reminders on the benefits of respiration, or playing I-spy"

Sound like an app to put you on par with the concentration skills of the pedestrian zombie. The one who assumes the law of the road (pedestrians have priority) outweighs the laws of physics (idiot meat sack walks directly in front of moving vehicle and wonders why the world suddenly shifted).

"Now I realise they are simply designed to copycat the way the average motorist drives already."

The distance between theory and practice. May it be classroom, driving lessons or whatever subject pits theory against the real world. Anyone who lives it knows theory is a spherical chicken in a vacuum and thats before you meet outliers of anally retentive rule abider's to lawless twits. That the machine is able to blend in with the many shows a level of sophistication.

Tesla advises: "The currently enabled Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous."

I thought there were rules, even laws regarding false advertising.

So I take the turn as directed by

I did that once, when Waze hadn't the option yet "don't go through roads that aren't roads after all".

I found myself trapped in a muddy dirt road, with nice big rocks from time to time, and a downward 15% slope. And of course with a car with an automatic gearbox, because it's funnier when you can't use motor brake and drive a way a crab would be proud of. After 10 minutes of sweat, I was lucky to be back in one unbumped piece to a standard road. Since then I don't follow apps applications if they lead me to a road too narrow to turn back.

Mr Dabbs leaving near Montpellier would be surprised of this, but there are cities in France where a pedestrian can cross the street, eyes closed, without risking death. In France the way to drive is very different from one region to another. In Montpellier like most places in south-eastern France, a pedestrian makes a gamble each time there's a street to cross, even on a pedestrian crossing. More exactly, especially on it, because it can give a false sense of security...

>> Mr Dabbs leaving near Montpellier would be surprised of this

Oh, I dunno. I find motorists more courteous here - to each other and to pedestrians - than in London. The one thing all motorists have in common worldwide, though, is their hatred of cyclists and overwhelming desire to kill them. Cyclists, in turn, hate and try to kill pedestrians. Pedestrians tread on ants.

I nearly got mowed down in Vire, Normandy. I had to jump back off the pedestrian crossing back to the pavement narrowly avoiding being hit by a female driver gabbing on her mobile phone not looking at the road ahead.

Pedestrian respect is not a country or region issue.

It's a distance-from-the-Mediterranean phenomenon: The nearer you get to the Med, the greater the likelihood that a car will take you out whilst you are using a pedestrian crossing.

Stay in lane features can be a menace, I have found. Overtaking a cyclist typically does not require going to the opposite lane, but I do like driving around them rather than through them (personal preference, others may feel differently), as the lane assist would have me do. It is totally unnerving when the car (a rental Volkswagen Passat) basically tries to take over control of the wheel and nearly drives you into a bike. Don't get me started on the various alarms going off when trying to back out of a parking space, because the proximity sensor detects the presence of a wall in front of the car. A wall you are clearly moving AWAY from.

I am so glad my own car has far less AI (alleged intelligence) built in

"Overtaking a cyclist typically does not require going to the opposite lane..."

If you are in the UK, you may not need to go completely into the opposite lane, but you will overlap it by a large margin, according to the Highway Code. The new clarifications say that you should leave at least 1.5 (5 feet) when overtaking cyclists. Similarly cyclists should cycle at least 0.5m (1.5 feet) from the kerb "when riding on busy roads with vehicles moving faster than them."

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-highway-code-8-changes-you-need-to-know-from-29-january-2022

It is totally unnerving when the car basically tries to take over control of the wheel and nearly drives you into a bike

But your car will score more highly in the Euro crash/safety tests, which is why all cars now come with it permanently enabled. More rules created by people whose main experience of driving is having their chauffeur pilot the limo between Strasbourg & Brussels.

Hmm, it gets really boring having to disable the bicycle seeker and train crossing engine stop features every time I get into my car.

I can see there might be a case to support some sort of automation when

driving on motorways (UK) but then again some degree of zombie-control already seems to exist:

Enter motorway- Certain cars immediately move to the outside lane, and stay there until time to exit, usually at the last possible moment without warning.

Lorries (aka Trucks): Behaving as trains but unhooked, travelling close in the slip-stream and confounding entry/exit of any other vehicle.

Lane-hogger: Steady as she (or he, etc.) goes.

There's no reason why these traits couldn't/shouldn't be automated. I've no doubt some already use the freedom to do their breathing exercises, with or without an app. (Actually, I can see an opportunity for Dabbsy to do the voice-over on the app. In language we can all understand.)

But when vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists meet, the rules of the jungle take over and the heaviest will win. For some reason, AI is seen as the solution when common courtesy would be more appropriate. Anyway it's Friday and I'm not driving anywhere ->

"What they found was that good drivers in built-up areas have learnt to recognise a pedestrian's body language and facial tics that suggest they are about to step into the road. "

Right. We've gotten pretty good at discerning the difference between a pedestrian about to cross and a hobo stepping up to the gutter to throw up.

But seriously: I've seen a number of reports on the progress of self driving adoption. And most of them assume the eventual incorporation of V2V (vehicle to vehicle) communications. Great. But what do you do about the pedestrians and cyclists? Rather than designing some sort of cooperative AI system, vehicle designers need to look at adversarial game theory a bit more. Your enemy isn't going to willingly tip their hand.

I'm trying to decide if people are stupid, if car manufacturers think they are stupid, or a mix of both.

Almost exactly 2 years ago someone went in to the back of my car on the M8 around Eurocentral. Nothing unusual in this, it's a very busy road that goes from 4 lanes to 2 quite quickly. No one hurt, no serious damage. Got a Hyundai something or other as my courtesy car whilst my rear bumper was being replaced and it would not shut up. Wipers turned on or off, lights turned on or off or anything else and the dashboard put up a big flashing message to tell me what I'd just done. Being in what the car thought was the wrong gear for 20 seconds caused it to have a fit, despite the fact that it is unaware of what I know, that I'm coming up to a junction. Trying to turn off the indicator after changing lanes to overtake really confused it.