Same here. Full self drive would be a pipe dream. Single track roads and/or no road markings. It's largely impossible to determine where the edge of the road is. There are often floods across the roads and in the summer bracken can make the lanes appear impassible.
There's a stretch of relatively wide straightish road up the hill from here, no exaggeration but every year you will see at least a couple of cars in the ditch, not usually from excessive speeding* but from being a polite driver pulling over to let other vehicles pass and not knowing about the concealed ditch on one side on the road.
Is it? How is that done?
Why would you spend time and effort deliberately ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ things up for other people like that?
Various reasons.
Google maps tracks the number of active cellphones near a road - guy asked all his friends to lend him their phones for an hour and walked slowly along a main road - Google maps marked it as blocked.
My point is that able bodied people don't need cars for the last mile.
I'd have to disagree with that bit. Often it has sent me down country lanes that are marginally shorter routes but take a damn sight longer. Google maps seems to have no clue about the quality of the road. just its theoretical speed limit.
It will use the official classification - "a" or "b" and the speed limits.
Yup, and if a single-track lane and a decent road are both classed as 'B' then it will send you down the lane if it happens to be shorter.
No because they use the same routing info as any of the satnav systems do.
Yes, to the first point. In country areas it's prone to sending me down narrow lanes when it spots a 'short cut'
A 5-minute traffic delay on the main road ahead so it reckons the lane is quicker, when in fact it's slower and a minor nightmare to negotiate? Dunno, I can only describe what has fairly recently happened to me a number of times.
Around here we are crisscrossed by so many little lanes its quite unbelievable and my satnav seems to be trying to make sure I've gone up and down all of them! One of the worse ones locally is the very, very steep lane directly off the main road, it is a single lane with a couple of passing places, at this time of year it is particularly lethal as it gets full of wet, slimy leaves that are worse than ice for slipping and losing traction. Seen people in tears trying to get up or down, and like most locals over the decades I've had to get into someone else's car to help them out. It's not as bad as it used to because a lot of cars now have these "hill start" features but the satnavs still love it - in terms of distance saves about a mile and half compared to a "detour" using more normal roads. Oh and it is a 40mph lane. Really would like to see 2 self-driving going opposite directions negotiate it.
I’m the opposite - you know the photos of a car driving into a river? That’s me if the satnav said to drive into the river who I’m I to question it?
As long as you're not living in urban sprawl, US style, it's more of a last 100 yards problem, which is scarcely one.
And I don't like negotiating busy streets full of cars as a pedestrian or cyclist. I don't like cycling past lines of parked cars whose drivers may open a door at any second or having to squeeze between them to cross the road. I don't like the proliferation of car parks and the concrete flyovers cutting through communities.
I prefer the sheep personally. Unlike tourists they know to step out of the middle of the road.
This is definitely true. But, because I am from out the country myself and drive a lot of back roads, I don't mind this problem (it is definitely a problem).
So ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ what? You are one person who lives in the sticks. Most people live and/or work in urban spaces. Are we supposed to base our transport policies based on what you personally want?
I want to base transport policy in cities on what is appropriate for city dwellers and country people just visiting. I have not seen anybody argue for the complete abandonment of cars. It's a straw man.
No they didn't.
