I've now had it happen twice that a car will fully blow through an intersection because they know a Waymo will slam on the breaks to avoid a collision. They basically abuse the car's reflexes.
Also in any sort of situation where the Waymo is being very cautious the biggest danger is the impatient people behind the Waymo who will break the law to go out and around it.
Returning to Houston after living abroad for 10 years, the biggest culture shock was that everyone runs red lights.
Every time the light turns green for you, you can expect 1-3 cars to keep rolling through until you can go. I've almost been rear ended by not running a light that just turned red because the person behind me also wants to floor it through. Yakety sax shit.
Then I found out in 2019, the Texas legislature outlawed the use of red-light cameras.
Maine does not have red light cameras and this isn't a problem.
The variability of how much people crash in various parts of the US is fascinating, like at least one entire order of magnitude difference in otherwise comparable cities.
>Then I found out in 2019, the Texas legislature outlawed the use of red-light cameras.
>Muh freedum.
To be fair you have progressives arguing against red light cameras as well, on the basis that it's a regressive tax on poor people, and that it causes more accidents through drivers slamming on the brakes on a yellow.
The cameras are a regressive tax on poor people? That would be the tickets. You can correct this by having ticket penalties scale in proportion with wealth or income, which is something you probably want to do anyways so that they still act as a deterrent for people who are otherwise rich enough to flaunt traffic laws.
As for causing more accidents through slamming brakes on the yellow, I simply don't believe that. But if it helps you can extend the yellow duration by an extra half second.
I've now had it happen twice that a car will fully blow through an intersection because they know a Waymo will slam on the breaks to avoid a collision. They basically abuse the car's reflexes.
Also in any sort of situation where the Waymo is being very cautious the biggest danger is the impatient people behind the Waymo who will break the law to go out and around it.