Posted on 05/25/2026 5:36:58 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Today I had the experience of driving for an extended period behind a Tesla. One of my daughters was with me. We were in a rural area of upstate New York, on a two-lane road with enough curves and oncoming traffic that there were few opportunities to pass. So we were behind this car for about 20 miles. We took the opportunity to observe some things about how the new world works.
Living in Manhattan, we don’t go out for extended drives in the country all that often. Maybe most readers here drive much more than I do and have had experiences like the one I am about to describe. But this was new to me.
The Tesla that we were following was a white sedan. We didn’t get a photo, but the car looked very much like the one in this picture below (the difference being that the picture appears to have been taken in Queens, but we were in a rural area upstate):
In upstate New York, there is a general speed limit of 55 mph where no other limit is specified. And thus 55 was the speed limit for most of our time on this road. As all normal people know, at least in this area, 55 does not really mean 55. The most common speed of traffic on this road is between 60 and 65, and you will not get a ticket even up to 70. But this Tesla was going exactly 55. Not 56 or 54, but 55.
Then we approached an area with some population and businesses. Heading into that area, the speed limit dropped to 45, although the speed limit sign came several hundred yards before the buildings. Right at the sign, the Tesla slowed down to precisely 45. That’s when my daughter remarked that this car had to be operating in self-driving mode.
Sure enough, right where the speed limit ended, the Tesla went back to exactly 55.
Several miles further on came a zone with a speed limit of 35. The same principles were applied: the car slowed down to exactly 35 at the first speed limit sign, continued at exactly 35 through the zone, and went back to exactly 55 immediately after the zone. Then, after a stretch at 55, there was another short 45 mph zone. Once more, it was the same drill.
Then, back at 55, we could see in the distance a school bus approaching from the opposite direction. Several hundred yards ahead, it stopped. Its red lights began flashing. A “STOP” sign swung out on its driver’s side toward our lane of traffic. Its door opened. There was plenty of time for cars going our direction to stop.
This happened too fast for us to get a picture, but here is a representative image of a school bus looking pretty much like that one, stopped, lights flashing, “STOP” sign perpendicular, and door open:
A couple of little kids came out the door.
And then the Tesla blew by at full speed!
Oops. I guess they haven’t programmed the school bus thing into the operating system just yet. Fortunately the kids weren’t trying to cross the highway at that moment.
By the time the kids had disembarked and the school bus had turned off its flashing lights, the Tesla was far ahead of us. But a few miles further on, we had caught back up, and we soon came to a place where the highway passes an ultra-high-end gated golf community. (For a time, Tom Brady and then-wife Gisele were the most famous owners there.). To our total lack of surprise, the Tesla turned in.
I suppose that the issue of failing to stop for a school bus can be seen as a software glitch that can be easily corrected. Probably, that issue will be corrected in the next update. Maybe it has already been corrected and this particular car just didn’t have the update.
But how about the more general and important issue that this self-driving car mechanically followed rules to the letter without exercising any judgment or considering trade-offs. Can that be corrected? Many may actually not even consider that to be a problem. Shouldn’t everybody obey all rules and regulations, even the most minute and picayune, to the letter?
I consider myself lucky that I am old enough that I don’t have to adapt (much) to the oncoming world of AI and self-driving cars and robots and the like. Young people today are not so lucky.
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Yeah...and a stick shift,,,,double d-clutch...
I wonder how big rig drivers get their license
What with 12 speed manual transmissions
split into 6 speeds with that nifty high/low switch
Spokeshave who in a previous existence drove a big rig...every state west of I35 in all weathers.
That is why I have over 600 HP in mine.
I envision a future where there will be self-driving cars, all cars will be networked to hundreds, if not thousands of cars in the immediate vicinity, and they will all be talking to each other.
No stoplights or stop signs would be needed...cars will speed up imperceptibly or slow down imperceptibly so that your car would go right through a busy intersection without stopping, while a car zooms through right ahead of you and right behind you without stopping.
The price to pay for this would have to be the abolishment of humans driving their own cars, and as much as I would love to have the option of having my car drive me to work or to drive me through a beautiful countryside that I could enjoy with my eyes, I won’t surrender that.
Self-driving cars and human-driven cars cannot coexist in the same driving space. One can imagine the Yutes of today taking great glee in creating chaos with self-driving cars.
The proponents of self-driving cars could also try to quarantine human driven cars to certain roads, but one can imagine the difficulties there. Right off the bat, if your insurance company knows you are driving a car yourself, you are going to pay much higher insurance rates. That isn’t even in question. They will do everything they can to make driving your own car so costly you will “choose” not to do it.
I have aways thought it would be awesome to get some extra sleep while commuting into work. Or better yet, get those extra winks while my flying car flies me into work, but...I won’t see that before I die.
And I have concluded I am okay with that.
Hahahaha...I thought that was hilarious when I read that!
It was like preventing employees from using unauthorized phones by replacing them with old rotary-dial phones!
One of the best ways to have bad law changed is to start enforcing it.
The Tesla Full Self Driving feature allows the human driver to pick from several modes. One of those modes is to follow the speed limits.
Drivers are able to select a Maximum Speed Offset as much as 20%. For 55 mph that would be 11 mph, or a maximum speed of 66 mph.
The choice is up to the human driver.
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/fsd-and-speed-limits.347703/
That works for me..
An FSD Tesla has the experience of 10 billion miles driven
The unsupervised FSG 14.3 is linked via Starlink satellites to the TESLA AI computers that know all about dealing with school busses.
84 percent of my Tesla miles are in FSD mode.
I don’t know what model or year he was following, but mine stops for school buses and slows down for school zones.
I just listen to music while the car drives most of the time.
I set my driving style to chill mode. It’s like being in a good limo, quiet, smooth acceleration, great sound system. my only unexpected bump was when a squirrel darted out, froze, then zig zagged zigged. I think it was nuts. I’m still waiting to see the icon for gator in the road.
I recall some incident probably mentioned here where an owner was shot during a car jacking for just that reason. Would be thief was frustrated.
Egad. The thought of some young jackass bugging out and cussing while trying to steal a car with a manual transmission is satisfying and funny, but that sure isn’t.
I can absolutely see that happening.
“”I am old enough that I don’t have to adapt (much) to the oncoming world of AI””
You are not alone! Adapt much!! Do we have a choice? We have to learn to stop yelling at AI over the phone when they go through their mindless routine and you have business you NEED to conduct and perhaps with a time restraint...Not a way you want to start your day...
Why don’t they make nice looking Teslas? Those things are butt ugly and there are millions of the white ones.
There have been more than a few self driving car incidents with school busses. I’ve been saying all along once there is a severe incident with an autonomous vehicle (like the autonomous trucks now in Texas) and a school bus people are going to take a hard look at this technology.
Also some sort of regional traffic control. Then we move into flying cars that can navigate on land and in the air.
>>The consequences here? Killing children — a ‘bug’ like that should generate a full-blown recall.
If the number of cars on the road * the probability of a kid getting killed by the glitch * the average cost of a settlement is less than the cost of a recall, they don’t do one.
“No matter how well AI can fake an interaction and seem human, it can’t exercise judgment and no designer who doesn’t want a prison sentence or a career ending legal judgment would code anything like “judgment” into his software.”
Love it! I was fascinated with those flying cars as a child.
[[Low down dirty dog stuff, at this late date, not stopping dead in the street for the kids getting on or off a school bus.]]
Agreed! Knew a missionary’s daughter who got off bus, crossed the street and was killed by an impatient driver. On her birthday no less!
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