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Comment by flandish | Hacker News Reader

All drivers should drive with the assumption the person in front of them will, at some point, instantly turn into a wall like a Wile E Coyote drawing of a mountainside cave.

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Indeed. Transmission failures, bearing failures, tire blowouts, and throwing a rod all can cause a car on a freeway to stop quickly. The onus of avoiding this is entirely on the following car.

Kind of makes me wonder what would have happened if all the cars involved had been on autopilot. Would there have been a collision at all?

We'll never know, but I would wager not.

If the stopping car had been an old Toyota and we all had the same footage... well, it probably wouldn't even make the news in the first place... but if it did, we'd all be blaming the rear-enders. But because it's a Tesla, and there is a possibility that AI was involved, suddenly we shift our blame from the rear-enders and tailgaters to the computer.

We've always had double standards for humans and machines.

Unless the cohort of AI/FSD cars are sharing vehicle health/telemetry and know when another is “about” to have a blowout, I posit a rear end can still happen.

Yes brakes will apply sooner and follow distance is likely to be safer/wider.

I just don’t yet trust it’s good enough.

I’ve always thought of it more like “will slam on their breaks” than “turn into a wall”. In most states, rearending is your fault unless the person in front of you stopped faster than is normal (i.e. was hit head on by an oncoming car), and I think that sets a good standard for what you should be prepared for.

If a tree falls on the car in front of you and you hit them because they stopped instantly, it’s hardly your fault.

You would have to fight to say it’s hardly your fault, in my experience.

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