Elon Musk

I never took a driving test because you could do well enough in a drivers education course and skip it, unless you ended up getting randomly selected

I probably could have used a little more instruction. I think I’d rate my driving as average now, although the number of absolutely bizarre moves I’ve seen people make lately make me think that maybe the average is slipping

All you bad drivers confessing your road sins explains so much of what I see out there. Have you considered self-driving cars?

xxp I took several amazing drives across Montana in the summer of 91. IIRC, at least back then, the speed limit was more of a suggestion.

In the absence of stringent licensing standards, I keep hoping that the specter of a vehicular manslaughter trial is at least occasionally enough to encourage motorists to pay some modicum of attention to the world around them. Even though I'm sure we all can agree that concerning ourselves with the well-being of others and the actions we can take to avoid actively compromising that well-being is soooo dumb and boring, gah.

half of all drivers are worse than average! I’m just realistic

I am an excellent driver.

My eldest is a tow truck driver. She regularly extracts cars from situations that are truly mystifying. You might be surprised at the number of cars that end up in trees.

half of all drivers are worse than average! I’m just realistic

― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Thursday, December 14, 2023 2:27 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

has this country ever considered raising the skills of the average driver via education and testing? something to think about.

Counterpart: thinking is stupid.

The keys to good driving are alertness and patience. Most drivers lack these qualities even when they aren't behind a steering wheel.

It's hard to be patient when you're surrounded by stupidity. Of course, being surrounded by stupidity is what makes it important to be alert.

Raising license standards would require us to have more alternatives to driving, can’t have that. Buses create poor people out of thin air!

Haha, one of the Metro Atlanta counties voted down light rail a few decades ago because they thought it would bring crime. Right, someone's gonna jack your 72" TV and carry it home on the train.

In Australia there are all these license levels that limit where and how you can drive until you're, like, 20. (ILX Aussies can correct me.)

Yeah basically. You can get a license at 16 but its a Learners permit, you have to have a fully licenced driver with you at all times and can have zero BAC. I think theres also limits to the kind of car you're allowed to drive (you cant drive overpowered V8s for example). You have to have the Ls for 120 hours of driving and then pass a full driving test for Provisional (P) license which is in 2 parts,12 months on P1 then 3 years on P2. after that you're good to go on a full license with none of the speed/car restrictions.

My (takes breath) brother-in-law's sister's son bought a beat up truck at the start of his license process. As he got his hours and gradually moved up his ranks he fixed up the truck, and the truck was more or less good to go just as he was. And a week later, he crashed it.

I kinda feel like all prospective drivers should have to log like 100 hours with a psychologist in the passenger seat gauging their general mental and emotional fitness to pilot a multi-ton death machine.

Driver's ed used to be part of the public school curriculum. I think some schools still offer it, but most do not. Private driving schools are an alternative. Having three kids who took the course, I'd say it produced . . . mixed results.

xpost And then the only way to pass the test is to admit you shouldn't be driving. The only way to win the game is not to play the game!

Our high school offers driver's ed, it's super useful, and if you pass it, you don't have to take the test at the DMV.

Speaking of curriculum

Elon Musk has plans to open a new university in Texas, according to tax filings.

Bloomberg reported the filings show Musk donated $100m to his charity, The Foundation, to establish a primary and secondary Stem school in Austin – and later to seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges for launching a university.

The Foundation said the curriculum for the school and university would “combine formal instruction by experienced faculty in subjects such as mathematics, science, engineering and physics, alongside hands-on learning experience including simulations, case studies, fabrication/design projects, and labs”.

Not the 'Musk Foundation' - THE FOUNDATION, as if there were no other

Further echoes of Kanye. Will the teachers be AI terminals?

Cool, yes, let's get more people out there making cars crash and rockets explode and creating online nazi hangouts, please and as quickly as possible

Nazi Moon Mars Base

They can have it, I would be thrilled if every Nazi moved to Mars.

With no space suits.

Driver's ed used to be part of the public school curriculum. I think some schools still offer it, but most do not. Private driving schools are an alternative. Having three kids who took the course, I'd say it produced . . . mixed results.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, December 14, 2023 4:46 PM bookmarkflaglink

anybody can drive around on a closed course in circles, but at least it teaches you how to start the car and get it moving without running over someone in a parking lot

supposedly someone in my brother's driver's ed class crashed the car while dicking around

Give that man a license.

I nearly ran the car over a raised median in driver's ed. TBF I really had like zero idea what I was doing or how to control the dang thing.

our teacher tried to scare everybody by showing videos of people burning alive in car wrecks and the aftermath and calling them "crispy critters" and warning us we'd turn into critters if we didn't learn how to drive and that maybe 25% of us would be critters even if we drove perfectly

One day of our class was spent watching a video of a Jeep using its winch to get out of a sand dune. Maybe useful info for future Cybertruck owners.

I did driver's ed at Sears, we had to do a lot of real driving but our parallel parking was a couple of cones in the parking lot. Given how often I'm doing 80 to keep up with traffic in a 75 zone, it's weird to get flashbacks of the terror the first time my instructor was like "okay, time to get on the highway!" and the limits were all still 55 around here then.

I got yelled at because I panic braked and swerved when a dog ran into the road in front of us. "Just hit the dog" is technically a sound bit of advice but I'd probably still risk my life and anyone in another lane if that happened.

I hate driving (and dont drive) and part of that is thanks to my mother trying to teach me and being a complete panicky freakouter. I was trying to slowly pull the car over onto a grassy shoulder (in a country town with NO traffic) and she fucking shrieked at me OMG OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING as if I was just idly running off the road.

Fuck that shit.

I taught both of my kids, and I did my best to stay quiet and neutral but boy did I breathe a sigh of relief once we got home and I changed out of my sweat-soaked shirt.

Same here. Although, two of my three kids who drive are better drivers than I am now.

I know it's rockist and all but I do think learning how to drive on manual transmission forces you to think more about what you're doing. Neither of my kids drive yet, but the thing I keep telling them is, this is the most dangerous thing you will do every day. You need to pay attention to it.

Good luck finding a car with manual transmission in the US.

our teacher tried to scare everybody by showing videos of people burning alive in car wrecks and the aftermath and calling them "crispy critters" and warning us we'd turn into critters if we didn't learn how to drive and that maybe 25% of us would be critters even if we drove perfectly

Yeah, we got to watch the death movies in high school too. A couple of years later I saw some of the same movies being projected behind the Butthole Surfers while they played, which lessened the impact somewhat.

After driving only stick since 1990, our cars are now automatic only and I feel the opposite. Not having to think about shifting keeps my hands on the wheel and me focused on the road. It's also much nicer when you do a lot of stop-and-go driving.

Good luck finding a car with manual transmission in the US.

I own one, but we bought it in 1997. We're willing to sell it to any interested ilxor for a fair price!

"okay, time to get on the highway!"

^^^ very vivid memories of this, a nightmarish white-knuckle experience of sweat and absolute terror.

My driver's ed instructor taught me how to whip shitties and do J turns.

Good luck finding a car with manual transmission in the US.

Oh I know, and I'm not rockist enough to buy one just to make my kids learn on it. But it does require a different level of engagement. I think engagement is good when you're learning to drive.

And PBKR, I agree. Mostly thinking about learning to drive, just the mechanics of thinking about when you're accelerating and decelerating, thinking about the machine you're operating.

xxxps, still occasionally get a dissociated feeling sometimes thinking about how millions of us are zipping around at 80mph in two tons of steel. The only comparable feeling I get is sitting still on a runway and watching a jumbo jet take off on a parallel runway. We’re all constantly spitting in God’s eye.

You shouldn’t be driving 80mph probably

You shouldn’t be driving 80mph probably

i tried to learn to drive and got worse as the lessons went on

i love that this turned into manual vs automatic because i read the article upstream yesterday (without seeing the follow up discussion above this post). driving later yesterday i got thinking about 75% of cars in europe are manual-- it sorta freaked me out wrt driving behavior. despite visits there, i had no idea of that difference in man/auto norms.

for me, and to me, it's a huge change in driver behavior and engagement. there is significantly less required attention with automatic imo.

i learned and lived to 30 y/o only on manual. i mostly got automatic because it allows more space for the distractions of kids. and to be sure, i don't think i was consciously thinking "hey i can be more dangerous and pay attention to things off the road." it was just clearly "easier" to me. but in thinking last evening, that ability to engage in distracted driving is the precise effect. and probably i still wouldn't wish to return to manual for most matters, automatic transmissions are geared and shift behavior is adequate for how i drive now.