Banning Left Turns for AI Driverless Cars, Right is Right

Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider

Some say that self-driving cars should never turn left, it’s a safety thing

Left turns. Bane of our existence. They are considered one of the most dangerous maneuvers you can make while driving a car. Sometimes making a left turn is easy, while in other cases it becomes a harrowing experience.

I was driving my car the other day and came to an intersection that allowed me to make a left turn, but there wasn’t protective pocket and nor was there a green arrow available. Instead, this was a rather harrowing circumstance of occupying a lane that allowed cars to either go straight or make a left turn, and that permitted a left turn once oncoming traffic provided a break significant enough to make the left turn. A car ahead of me was also trying to make this death defying left turn.

I could see her inch her car further forward into the intersection and was obviously hopeful that if she wasn’t able to make the left turn during the green light that she could at least do so once the intersection went to yellow. The oncoming traffic was streaming continuously and there wasn’t any break that she could try to dive into.

The light went to yellow and the oncoming traffic was determined to get as many cars straight through as possible. Finally, the light went entirely to red and there were still two oncoming cars that opted to…