Quick go try out the Reading roundabout! I was close by but didn't have time for that drive.
Ooh I did not think of trying it, I took off through MIddleton and up I95 and back to start with a nice sparse traffic experience, but that's OK, there'll be opportunities, as I'm definitely wanting to give it more of a workout.
First impressions were basically, "Holy *sugar*, yes", for most of the time, and the little hiccups didn't do that much to put me out of my good mood. I had ZERO speed-related issues, in terms of going an inappropriate speed on a deserted (or otherwise) road. The limits were 30 and 35 and it consistently went 3-4 over. I'd have been doing 40-45 but this wasn't a race lol.
There's a funky intersection near my house:
Coming toward it from Essex street above, there's a sharp left up a hill onto Forest that is actually "going straight" through the light. V11 would get into the correct lane, but then go brain dead in the middle of the intersection and start trying to turn left and I'd have to intervene. After the second time we didn't play that game any more.
Unfortunately, tonight V12 stopped so short of the stop line that it didn't trigger the signal to change and I sat there through a few cycles before realizing it, and then somehow ended up disengaged through the intersection. But I had a feeling it would've aced it. I'll find out another day soon I guess. Have to teach a #%$!-ing class tomorrow, won't get to play until the afternoon.
From the opposite direction, there was another problem. I approached from Forest St. and sat at the light OK, but when it turned green, Nameless went way over the double yellow crossing 114 (N. Main on the map) . It had plenty of room to the right, I don't get that one.
I feel that gushing about how human-like and confident it felt would be preaching to the choir here so I'll restrain myself, but wow, this gives me so much hope. It's like more than that now, it's relief. Yes, this works. It needs refinement, but not, it would seem, another round of heading back to the drawing board until maybe a couple of years from now they invent a better NN design. That's a better reason to redesign than, "This will never work."
I'm going to share one very subjective experience I had, and it was somewhat startling. I was comparing the experience of a tailgater when I'm the one driving, vs. when Nameless is driving (yes, driving). If it were me, I'd be getting annoyed, probably speed up to get the heck away or something. With Nameless driving at a reasonable speed, I was just thinking, "Sorry, Charlie, you picked the wrong time to be wanting to go faster, because I'm beta testing FSD and I couldn't care less how much of a hurry you're in." And I didn't have to care at all lol. But that's not the end of it.
When I got home, I told my wife I wish she'd been willing to go with me because it was kinda monumental, and it hit me: The guy was tailgating me
and I didn't even care. This is me, who has been telling everyone how I never let any vehicles be directly behind me when I'm testing due to phantom braking.
I did not even worry about that happening. Probably I was being irresponsible, I don't know, but I guess I got away with it. Nameless never hesitated or went too slow except for the stop signs, which we won't even talk about.
Me happy.
occurs?
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