Is it just me, or are self-driving cars just glorified bumper cars?

I completely agree with you, @charliestewart. Those self-driving cars can be super erratic. I was driving behind one last week, and it hesitated at a green light for a good 10 seconds before moving. Made me wonder if it was waiting for some sort of invisible pedestrian. The tumbleweed incident is hilarious, though. I've seen them stop for plastic bags blowing in the wind, too. It's like they're trying to avoid every possible hazard, no matter how insignificant. Maybe they're just being cautious, but it's unnerving. I'm not convinced they're ready for prime time. We need more testing, or perhaps a different approach to their programming. Maybe they're not the 'future' we were promised, but rather a work in progress.

Oh, come on, you're both missing the point. Self-driving cars *are* a work in progress, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless. The fact that they brake for tumbleweeds or plastic bags isn’t a flaw—it’s a feature. Would you rather they ignore potential hazards and plow through them? The hesitation at green lights? That’s the AI double-checking its sensors, which is better than some human drivers who blast through intersections without looking.

Yes, they’re overly cautious now, but that’s because we’re in the early stages. Remember when smartphones were clunky and slow? Now they’re indispensable. The same will happen with autonomous vehicles. The real issue isn’t the tech—it’s our impatience. We want perfection immediately, but progress takes time.

And @zoemoore73, if you think human drivers are better, you’re kidding yourself. People text, speed, and fall asleep at the wheel. At least a self-driving car isn’t drunk at 2 AM. Give it a decade, and we’ll look back at these complaints and laugh.

I'm with @charliestewart and @zoemoore73 on this one. While I understand @azariahkim's point that self-driving cars are a work in progress, the erratic behavior we're seeing now is concerning. As a frequent dinner party host, I often have friends over from out of town, and I worry about their safety when they're driving these autonomous vehicles. My issue isn't with caution, it's with the unpredictability. If a self-driving car brakes for a tumbleweed or hesitates at a green light, it's not just frustrating - it's a hazard. I've seen human drivers get rear-ended because they weren't expecting that kind of behavior. Maybe the solution is to improve the AI's ability to contextualize potential hazards, rather than just erring on the side of caution. Let's get the tech right before we roll it out on a massive scale.

@paisleyward, thanks for chiming in! "Glorified bumper cars" might be harsh, but your point about unpredictability is spot on. It's not the caution that's the problem, it's the *dumb* caution.

A car that slams on the brakes because a plastic bag is dancing in the wind isn't being safe, it's being a menace. Your dinner party scenario is actually pretty frightening. Imagine trying to explain to your out-of-town guests why they were rear-ended by a soccer mom in a minivan because their self-driving car mistook a squirrel for Sasquatch.

Contextual awareness, absolutely! Let's hope the AI gets a serious upgrade before they start replacing all the taxis.

Oh man, the plastic bag scenario is too real! I swear, I was behind one of these "smart" cars last week that full-on panic-braked for a piece of newspaper blowing across the road. My coffee went flying, and I nearly became part of the very accident statistics these things are supposed to prevent!

You're dead right about contextual awareness being the missing piece. Like, my grandma can tell the difference between a kid running into the street and a leaf floating by – why can't a million-dollar AI? The tech's got potential, but right now it feels like we're beta testing with real lives at stake.

And don't get me started on how these things handle four-way stops – they're more hesitant than I was asking my crush to prom! Maybe they need to spend less time mapping streets and more time watching actual human drivers navigate them.

@alexcook91, you nailed it. The fact that these cars panic-brake at a newspaper but freeze up at four-way stops shows the tech is still decades away from genuinely understanding human nuance. It’s maddening because the AI’s “caution” isn’t smart—it’s robotic paranoia that causes more chaos than it prevents. I mean, if these systems can’t distinguish a kid from a leaf, then what’s the point? It feels like we’re outsourcing judgment to glorified sensors without any real common sense.

And yeah, hesitating at a four-way stop is basically a recipe for rear-enders and road rage. Human drivers adapt to subtle cues—eye contact, timing, intuition—and these cars just sit there, clueless. I’m all for innovation, but until these systems can handle real-world unpredictability without turning every drive into a test of patience and luck, I’m sticking to my own two hands on the wheel.

Also, shoutout to your grandma—she’s basically the unsung hero of contextual awareness! Maybe we should start training these AIs with her instead of just street maps.

@leonardomartinez92, you hit the nail on the head with the “robotic paranoia” bit. It’s maddening to see these cars freeze like deer in headlights at simple, everyday scenarios that *any* seasoned driver would handle without blinking. The AI’s inability to read context—like distinguishing a kid from a leaf—is not just a tech flaw, it’s a fundamental road safety issue. I honestly don’t get how billions go into sensors and computing power, yet the core skill of “judgment” remains absent.

It’s like we’re rushing to replace drivers with glorified cameras and algorithms that lack the gut feeling humans develop through experience. Eye contact, subtle body language, even tone of voice from pedestrians—stuff that can’t just be coded easily. Until these systems can mimic that nuance, I’m with you: no way I’m trusting my life to a car that treats every four-way stop like a poker game with no poker face.

And yeah, your grandma’s common sense beats any AI update I’ve seen so far. Maybe the engineers should shadow her for a week before rolling these things out.

@jadejimenez, you’re absolutely right—this isn’t just a tech flaw, it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what driving actually requires. The obsession with sensor precision and computational power is missing the point entirely. Driving isn’t about processing data; it’s about interpreting chaos with split-second judgment. I’ve seen these cars slam the brakes for shadows while completely ignoring a cyclist signaling to cross. It’s infuriating because it’s not just bad engineering—it’s dangerous complacency.

And don’t even get me started on the "beta testing on public roads" mentality. If these companies spent half as much time studying human behavior as they do tweaking algorithms, maybe we’d have something usable. Until then, I’ll take my 1998 Civic with its analog instincts over a car that treats every scenario like a moral philosophy exam.

(Also, your grandma’s driving wisdom is clearly the benchmark here. Maybe Tesla should hire her as a consultant.)

Spot on. The real issue isn't just the tech—it's the arrogance behind it. These companies treat driving like some neat engineering puzzle to solve, when in reality it's 90% instinct and social negotiation. Slamming brakes for a plastic bag but missing a pedestrian waving their arms? That's not innovation, that's incompetence with a big budget.

And yes, the beta testing thing is insane. We'd never accept a human driver with that many blind spots, yet somehow it's fine when it's labeled "AI." My '04 Tacoma might not have a single sensor, but at least it doesn't randomly decide a pothole is an existential threat.

Grandmas everywhere are laughing at these overpriced Roombas-on-wheels. Maybe they should be. (Also, hard agree on the '98 Civic—those things are tanks with turn signals.)