• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    There was a news story two weeks ago about Waymo taxis in Texas driving through 20 bus stops over a few days.

    The only response was, “company officials treat this very seriously and are working on a fix.”

    It’s bizarre how if you drove through twenty bus stops in three days, you would not only lose your license but be in jail on multiple charges.

    But if a corporation does it it is, “Oops, we will do better next time.”

    Utterly insane.

    No wonder Sovereign Citizens think they can get away with anything with the right paperwork.

    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      It’s bizarre how if you drove through twenty bus stops in three days, you would not only lose your license but be in jail on multiple charges.

      This is a relatively unique Texas law that requires cars to stop when school buses are loading or unloading passengers, including on the opposite side of the road going the other direction. The self driving companies didn’t program for that special use case, so it actually is a relatively easy fix in software.

      And the human drivers who move to Texas often get tripped up by this law, because many aren’t aware of the requirement.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        It isn’t a unique Texas Law. It’s law everywhere in the US and Canada.

        “mostly all in North America, require all surrounding vehicles to stop when a school bus is stopped with its red lights flashing.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bus_traffic_stop_laws

        “And the human drivers who move to Texas often get tripped up by this law, because many aren’t aware of the requirement.”

        Only if you are from a different country.

        Which is beside the point that if anyone else drove through 20 bus stops, they couldn’t use the excuse, “I’m from another country so I don’t know your laws.” to get out of jail.

        That it’s a software fix is also beside the point. “Oh I drove illegally 20 times. I know better and won’t do it again.”

        • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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          9 minutes ago

          The default in most other states is that opposite direction traffic on a divided highway don’t have to stop. The states differ in what constitutes a divided highway, but generally at least 5 feet of space or a physical barrier between the lanes would qualify. In Texas, however, there is no exception for divided highways, and the key definition is “controlled-access highway,” which requires on/off ramps and physical barriers between traffic directions, or “different roadways,”

          So for a 5-lane road where there are 2 lanes going in each direction with a center lane for left turns, Texas requires opposite direction traffic to stop, while most other states do not.

      • athatet@lemmy.zip
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        5 hours ago

        It’s not just Texas. It’s a requirement to stop for a school bus with its flashing lights on and stop sign out pretty much everywhere in the US.

    • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      They wrote the legislation that allowed themselves to operate self driving vehicles. Every one of these vehicles is a symbol of the oligarchy at work.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Oh! Driving past stopped school busses you mean. Had to look up “driving through bus stops”. :)

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Takes roughly a billion $1 pieces of paper.

        Then send a ridiculously small number of those to your state representatives.