Road & Track borrowed an article from Popular Mechanics regarding a study that proves we need a 4th color on traffic lights: A special ‘white light’ for the dawn of autonomous vehicles. And… my forehead veins started to twitch lol. Because all this proves is… we don’t need more studies lol. See this is what happens in a self-righteous, enlightened world where we’ve given more weenies more time to sit around & invent dumb studies. And then figure out how to mandate them into law for safety. In other words… ‘for profit’ at the taxpayers expense. But here’s the thing: A proper functioning brain is usually a pretty good safety device. In fact, it’s my favorite!
According to the Road & Track / Popular Mechanics article…
“Transportation engineers from North Carolina State University are proposing the addition of a fourth WHITE light, whose function would be to alert humans to simply ‘follow the car in front of them.’”
North CAROLINAAAAAA… sit down & put your shirt back on.
Because fat damn chance. Turns out S3 Magazine did a study of our own. And we found that stoplights don’t need a fourth damn color. Our study found that what we need, are more stringent driver’s tests… and the addition of an IQ test as well.
The odds of me blindly following a robot-car because a white light told me to are slim to absolutely none. I have no plans to relinquish my own personal judgement to autonomy. Because for better or worse, I believe that I’m better-suited to guard my safety than sensors & algorithms. If people want to give up control of their vehicle, we have an option for that – it’s called public transportation.
If there’s anything else we need from traffic lights, it’s more intelligent versions that keep us from having to sit at idle when there’s absolutely no one coming. Remember, the more you have to stop & start, the more emissions you create. Therefore our study found that traffic lights, by their very nature, cause climate change lol.