Member-only story
Drivers Use Micro-Movements While Driving, Driverless Cars Don’t, Whoops!
Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
I was eagerly awaiting making a right turn on a red light at a busy intersection that led onto the always hectic Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). There seemed to be a gap in traffic so I gunned my engine to try and launch into the rightmost lane, when all of a sudden another car opted to swing into the lane, and I had to hit my brakes before I became an interloper that caused a pile-up.
Another driver that was behind me had assumed I was going to make the right turn and so they had followed me forward. When I hit my brakes, the other driver realized they needed to do the same, luckily. No hit, no harm. But it was a close call. Nobody else on planet earth would even realize that this moment had occurred, other than me and the car driver behind me. It all happened in an instant.
I’ve told you this story to bring up something that is quite important and yet often overlooked as an aspect of human driving behavior, namely the use of micro-movements when driving.
A micro-movement is considered a somewhat subtle driving action that exists somewhere in the gray area between doing an overt and obvious driving maneuver and doing essentially no noticeable driving maneuvering at all.
