> humans commit hundreds of leaps of faith of various severity on the roads daily
And this is necessary (to some degree, probably not as far as we take it though) in order to drive a car in a practical manner. Instead of thinking about it as "safe" vs. "unsafe", it's more helpful to think about driving as trying to limit your risk to whatever you consider an acceptable level, based on your model of the world.
From least to most risky, some potential models are:
* Assume nothing beyond the basic laws of physics
* Assume nothing outside your visual range is breaking any road rules
* Assume the road outside your visual range is as you last saw it (no blockages / hazards etc.)
* Assume other vehicles around you will mostly follow the road rules (basically what Waymo does, afaik)
* Assume other vehicles around you are alert and have a sense of self-preservation (the normal human driving behaviour you describe)
* Bomb through traffic YOLO style
The other issue, especially for emergency braking, is that whether or not something is a collision hazard or not is dependent on velocity, not just speed. Until emergency braking systems can take control of steering as well as braking there will always be false positives and negatives no matter how good we make the system's perception.
And this is necessary (to some degree, probably not as far as we take it though) in order to drive a car in a practical manner. Instead of thinking about it as "safe" vs. "unsafe", it's more helpful to think about driving as trying to limit your risk to whatever you consider an acceptable level, based on your model of the world.
From least to most risky, some potential models are:
* Assume nothing beyond the basic laws of physics
* Assume nothing outside your visual range is breaking any road rules
* Assume the road outside your visual range is as you last saw it (no blockages / hazards etc.)
* Assume other vehicles around you will mostly follow the road rules (basically what Waymo does, afaik)
* Assume other vehicles around you are alert and have a sense of self-preservation (the normal human driving behaviour you describe)
* Bomb through traffic YOLO style
The other issue, especially for emergency braking, is that whether or not something is a collision hazard or not is dependent on velocity, not just speed. Until emergency braking systems can take control of steering as well as braking there will always be false positives and negatives no matter how good we make the system's perception.