Driverless Cars Must Be Wary Of Human Drivers Nearby That Try To Be Traffic Guardians

Dr. Lance Eliot, AI Insider

Holiday traffic can be difficult to navigate. I had just gotten done doing some shopping at a popular mall and was pulling out of the mall parking lot, trying to enter into traffic onto a rather busy street that had lots of cars zipping along. Though you might think that people would be in a good mood because the holidays were just around the corner, it seemed that most drivers were crazed and driving as though it was their last day on Earth. Drivers were snarling at each other, cutting each other off, and otherwise driving as if it were a dog-eat-dog occasion.

Suddenly, a car came to a stop just before the mall exit that I was waiting at and offered to let me into the stream of traffic. I assumed at first that the driver was probably trying to come into the mall at this juncture and so was letting me go first, getting my car out of the way, so that they could then come into the mall. But, the driver didn’t have a turn signal on, which would have indicated they were going to turn into the mall. Furthermore, I knew this was considered an exit from the mall and though you could drive into the exit area, it tended to make for confusion of drivers in the mall that were usually all jockeying at the exit to get out of the mall.