Pedestrian Attacks Self-driving Car in the Mission (curbed.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Cruise AV, a self-driving car company owned by General Motors, reports that earlier this month an unidentified man in the Mission flung himself onto one of the company's autonomous vehicles while it was conducting a road test. According to a report filed with the California DMV (all companies testing self-driving cars on California public streets are required to make public reports any time an accident happens), the close encounter of the vehicular kind happened at 9:27 p.m. as the car was waiting to make a turn and "stopped at a green light in between crosswalks of Valencia Street and 16th Street, waiting for pedestrians to cross." The car's human driver says that a pedestrian then unexpectedly ran into the street against the traffic signal and "shouting....struck the left side of the Cruise AV's rear bumper and hatch with his entire body." The driver adds, "There were no injuries, but the Cruise AV sustained some damage to its rear light." No witnesses called the police.

Comments

What?

[dbrueck]

What's the Mission?

Re:What?

[known_coward_69]

most likely they lied to the cops about being hit by the car to sue for a big insurance payout

Re:What?

[mark-t]

Presumably, it's either a community, district, or suburb of San Francisco.... although I was only able to piece together that much by reading the article.

Well played, Slashdot.... well played.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

San Francisco

Re:What?

[mrbester]

Gothic rock band from the 80s.

Re:What?

[pr0t0]

You have to accept the mission before you can be told what it is.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a suburb in San Francisco - The Mission District

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_District,_San_Francisco

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a neighborhood in San Francisco. There's also examples like SOMA (South of Market Area), Tenderloin, and Union Square, to name just three. If you look at San Francisco with Google Maps, it will identify the different neighborhoods.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

The most effective way to troll for replies on slashdot is to state something that is obviously wrong. You can kick back and watch as people angrily tell you that it is in fact the opposite, and what a fool you are to have been wrong.

The second most effective way is to ask a dumb shit question that could be answered by less keystrokes into google than it takes to post here.

Re:What?

[Hadlock]

It's a historically hispanic neighborhood about 2 miles from the skyscrapery financial district/downtown.
 
It's also one of the sunniest, least windy and warmest (5-10F warmer when most of the city is 55-62F year-round) neighborhoods with an abundance of good ethnic (mexican, indian, etc) restaurants. As a result everyone wants to live there, and have successfully pushed out something like 50% of this hispanic population in favor of predominantly white "tech bros". Property owners are allegedly torching their own properties so that they can rebuild old commercial buildings with way more profitable modern, high density residential housing.
 
The current (neighborhoods in SF change hands every 25-30 years) old guard is pretty anti-modernism of their neighborhood and have vandalized or stopped bike share, car share, removing existing parking (parking here is a nightmare but so is traffic, SF has the lowest car ownership per capita in competition with manhattan, something like 35% and dropping) and opposing new bus lanes. Hispanic owned businesses are not doing amazing. There's a lot of pushback against anything percieved as a threat to the "traditional" Mission neighborhood. Prices went from under $2000 a month for a two bedroom 10 years ago to, I haven't checked recently but probably $3800 to $5000 depending on location; i.e. if you grew up in this neighborhood to parents without a college education (not unlikely) you very likely may not be able to afford to live here when you turn 18 (or whatever age you decide to no longer live with your parents).
 
So If it wasn't a crazy homeless guy (very likely) I can see this being some tangential offshoot of local opposition in some form.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mission California

Re:What?

[cayenne8]

Presumably, it's either a community, district, or suburb of San Francisco.... although I was only able to piece together that much by reading the article.

Oh...I thought at first read it was some sort of protest group that was "on a mission", or something to that effect.

Was confusing to me too, as that not everyone is familiar with areas of SF.

Re:What?

[Danathar]

much of SF believes the rest of the world revolves around their epicenter. The idea that people would not know what "The mission" was probably would not even dawn on people like story author. If you asked somebody in IOWA where "The Tenderloin" was, they would understandably think you were talking about meat.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Bronx...

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be Bronx speaking of fools.

Re:What?

[thinkwaitfast]

Hey, they're pretty good. How did I miss them?

Re:What?

[OrangeTide]

The Mission is the only one with an authentic style of food, so probably the only district worth mentioning. Love me some Mission Burritos.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a suburb, it's technically a district but folks outside San Francisco can just think of it as a neighborhood.

Given that location, I'd think it's less a case of someone not liking robot cars and just your run of the mill Mission junkie going nuts on a car that coincidentally was self-driving.

Re:What?

[OrangeTide]

much of SF believes the rest of the world revolves around their epicenter.

NYC has the same attitude, except maybe 10X more extreme. But at least for NYC it is somewhat justifiable.

The problem with SF's Tenderloin is that it is named after NY's Tenderloin. Both are historically red light districts. Although SF's Tenderloin is becoming more gentrified over the last 30 years that it will probably need to be renamed.

Re:What?

[Anubis IV]

The Mission is a district in San Francisco, somewhat akin to the way New York City is broken up into boroughs like the Bronxand Manhattan. From what I've gathered (having never visited the Bay Area), the Mission is well-known for its art scene, LGBTQ community, and food, though hopefully a local can chime in with better information.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

whoosh

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, 'cos Chinatown (Chinese, duh), Japan town (Japanese, dig), Richmond (Russian), the wharf (seafood/fish) and north beach (Italian) are completely fake! /s

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

This article is posted on Curbed San Francisco, it does not seem a far stretch for people to put two and two together. A related article about BART cars does not seem to feel the need to mention that BART is a rapid transit system serving the Bay Area (which includes the area around the San Francisco Bay, if we want to be inclusive).

For a similar reason, when most people read the New York Times they don't confuse "Manhattan" with Manhattan, Kansas despite the similarities.

Re:What?

[MBGMorden]

The Mission is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

SOHO, east village, NOHO, the south side, notting hill, etc. All cities have neighborhoods that they expect the rest of the world to know about.

Re:What?

[AvitarX]

I feel like SF is one of those cities (like NYC) where it is acceptable (though perhaps not preferable) to not clarify it's a neighborhood.

I live in the Eastern Seaboard and have no connection to SF, so I don't think I'm biased from locality (maybe I am WRT to NYC though).

Re:What?

[Curunir_wolf]

Mission in the Rain

Kids these days!

Re:What?

[OrangeTide]

None of those have their own style. SF Chinatown is basically Americanized Cantonese, and I would admit that it qualifies, but I can get better Chinese food in Milpitas or Fremont (two small Bay Area cities).

SF Japan town is pretty non-descript compared to other Japantowns.

The wharf has no cuisine, it's a tourist trap that shovels garbage copies of New England food that you find in any ocean side city. Some will argue that Cioppino is the wharf's cuisine, but strictly it is a North Beach dish and best versions are in North Beach.

Are there still the same three Russian restaurants in Richmond District? There are markets there that are good for those of us that know how to make Russian food at home, but otherwise it's not really offering any authentically unique cuisine.

Best Italian with it's own unique style in North Beach is at The Stinking Rose. Which isn't really Italian at all. Is Cioppino enough to make North Beach a destination? Honestly I don't like sour fish soup-stew with perhaps exceptions for some Thai cuisine, so I'm going to be pretty biased against North Beach making the list, but I could be wrong about it.

Re:What?

[vtcodger]

The Bronks? -- New England Patriots tight end. Roughly 8 feet tall? 300 kg or so? scores lots of touchdowns?

Re: What?

[LifesABeach]

Of all the problems I considered that could happen to a self driving car; breeding season did not even make it to the list.

Re:What?

[dgatwood]

The first rule of The Mission is that you do not talk about The Mission.

The second rule of The Mission is that you do not talk about The Mission.

Re:What?

[Rakarra]

much of SF believes the rest of the world revolves around their epicenter. The idea that people would not know what "The mission" was probably would not even dawn on people like story author.

Maybe, but the story was written for a San Francisco publication that has a San Francisco audience. IE, the article writer's expectation that the website readers would know what "The Mission" is is not unfounded. The submitter of the Slashdot article, however, simply cut and paste the first paragraph of the article and used that as the submission. Not necessarily a bad way to share a story, but when taking a niche article and spreading it to a wider geographic audience than it was originally intended for, it helps to add a little context on top. I wouldn't blame the original publication for that.

We see this all the time on Slashdot when someone submits an article without context, assuming others have a baseline amount of knowledge about what they're talking about.

Re:What?

[mysidia]

Fool, it is a District in the Great City of San Francisco. This is like not knowing what The Bronks is.

The name of some random district in San Francisco is NOT notable. And what is the Bronks?

Re:What?

[SuiteSisterMary]

In the wooden chair
Beside my window
I wear a face born in the falling rain
I talk to shadows from a lonely candle
Recite the phrases from the wall
I can't explain this Holy pain

Six days ago my life had taken a tumble
The orders came from high above they say
A need to use me once again they've got my number
Further the cause boy, yes you know the game

I'll wait here for days longer
Till the sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
She brings the only friend
That helps me find my way

I search the past back to a time
When I was younger
A target for the new society
Picked to displace the leaders
Countering objectives
Of this new underground reality

Waiting for days longer
TilL sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
My love for her
Will help me find my way

My mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
It turned my life around

I look around my room is filled with candles
Each one a story but they end the same
I'll hide away in here the law will never find me
The walls will tell the story of my pain
Waiting for days longer

Till sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
She sets the pace for my delivery of pain
My mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
The underground will rise and
Save this world, we'll all stand proud
Our mission changed the world, we'll change the world
We'll all stand proud

Re:What?

[desdinova 216]

and if you or your team is caught the Secretary will disavow any knowledge. As a tangent, which Secretary.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, classic insurance fraud. Many cars in Russia have dash cams for this very phenomenon. It goes like this:

Person with no practical skills and little moral scruples knows about insurance payouts or court settlements to people who are pedestrian victims in car accidents. They figure if they can get hit by a car, it's their word against the driver's. Plus the driver has a chance of being drunk, making it an easier win for the scammer. Without a dash cam or reliable witness, the argument becomes "why would someone intentionally throw themselves at your car???"

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

To rescue Dulcinea.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

So the Mission is in the Submission.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it was a movie that was made back in the 70's or 80's?

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 Hipster

Re:What?

[yaznaz]

Years ago when I was new to the US, I was pulled up by a cop and asked to go for the mission test with precise location and time-frame. I was flummoxed and genuinely surprised and the cop just smiled and walked away.
Took me a while to figure out that I needed to get emissions tested for my car.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

And here was I thinking that self driving cars could only breed with each other. Now if you will excuse me, I have to try something out.

Re:What?

[Cederic]

While happy to use internet search engines, 'the mission' is hardly a unique fucking term.

Be very fucking glad people aren't asking where the shithole called San Francisco is.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

So for those of you unfortunate enough to never have been to the center of the universe. The Mission is a neighbor in San Francisco just south of the financial district.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Bronks??? What kind of Russian troll are you? Idiot.

Re:What?

[ShanghaiBill]

Oh...I thought at first read it was some sort of protest group that was "on a mission", or something to that effect.

That is basically correct. The group was The Spanish Empire. The missions were constructed along El Camino Real ("The King's Road"), each about one day's ride from the next. They had a mission of converting the natives to Christian Catholicism. The "Mission District" of San Francisco is the area of the original Spanish settlement.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a suburb.

San Francisco's Mission Districts is one of a number of S. F. districts. "The Mission" comprises an area containing Mission Dolores, a historic adobe building established by Spanish (Franciscan) missionaries in 1776. It had since then been a largely hispanic-populated district until it recent gentrification, with ongoing conflicts.

Re:What?

[Provocateur]

A better headline would be ...in a place called 'the Mission' but that's not a slashdot editor's job.

Re:What?

[OrangeTide]

I was a doing this before it was cool.

Re:What?

[easyTree]

In other news, a black teenager ran backwards into a bullet leaving a police officer's gun. No sandwich was found at the scene.

Re:What?

[MaxiCat_42]

Reminds me of that South Park episode about "Smug".

Phil.

Re:What?

[i286NiNJA]

Low effort trolling is not to be praised but msmash did a good job here.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

I feel like SF is one of those cities (like NYC) where it is acceptable (though perhaps not preferable) to not clarify it's a neighborhood.

I live in the Eastern Seaboard and have no connection to SF, so I don't think I'm biased from locality (maybe I am WRT to NYC though).

If SF were to admit that The Mission was a neighbor, they would be considered "racist" by all of the "woke folk" out there....

Ahh.... them Lefists are so dang easy to satire I could not help myself! YEEEE

Re:What?

[JeremyR]

What truth? There is no spoon?

Re:What?

[Calydor]

I applaud you for how many people you snared with that bait. Well done, sir, well done.

Re: What?

[LifesABeach]

I have heard that bond between a man and a car is strong, it looks like auto insurers can quantify it.

Re: What?

[Brockmire]

msmash is garbage. Submissions should be marked "troll".

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

fewer.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Without dashcam or witnesses what's to stop the driver from just running him over in self defense?
Anyone who thinks they can beat up a car and tries at random is deranged and a threat.

Re: What?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Maybe because most drivers aren't immoral criminals. And yes, some pedestrians are deranged. Russian dashcam footage provides an abundance of (hilarious) proof.

Re:What?

[cayenne8]

From the article title....it seemed the 'mission' was to try to stop or impede the testing of driverless vehicles.

Re:What?

[HiThere]

It's an area of San Francisco south of Market street https://www.google.com/maps/pl...
It's got a few areas in it that are rather impacted by gentrification.

Re:What?

[slew]

much of SF believes the rest of the world revolves around their epicenter.

NYC has the same attitude, except maybe 10X more extreme. But at least for NYC it is somewhat justifiable.

The problem with SF's Tenderloin is that it is named after NY's Tenderloin. Both are historically red light districts. Although SF's Tenderloin is becoming more gentrified over the last 30 years that it will probably need to be renamed.

FWIW, there was a proposal (by PETA) a few years ago to rename it the Tempeh district...
Although having walked through there just last month, I'd say it has quite a ways to go before I would call it "gentrified"...

Re:What?

[slew]

The Mission is a district in San Francisco, somewhat akin to the way New York City is broken up into boroughs like the Bronxand Manhattan. From what I've gathered (having never visited the Bay Area), the Mission is well-known for its art scene, LGBTQ community, and food, though hopefully a local can chime in with better information.

SF is small compared to NYC.
The Mission is a neighborhood not similar to a borough... If you had to draw an analogy, in SF they have districts (which elect their own supervisors). For example, SF supervisor District 9 encompasses the "Mission" and "Bernal Heights" neighborhoods. A Borough in NYC like Brooklyn would have many neighborhoods (e.g., Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset park, Flatbush, etc)...

The Mission is unfortunately also known as one of the places where Tech buses (Google, Apple, etc) go and are attacked by local protesters...

But there are good restaurants and other things to do there (attracting the people who use aforementioned Tech buses and drive up local rents and thus generating local strife)...

Re:What?

[HornWumpus]

If 'Hell's Kitchen' can become 'Chelsea' than anything is possible. It will take time to drive out the scum.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

A friend of mine used to drive an El Camino.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

The real Soho in London, or the one in Hong Kong?

Re:What?

[JOstrow]

much of SF believes the rest of the world revolves around their epicenter. The idea that people would not know what "The mission" was probably would not even dawn on people like story author.

If you asked somebody in IOWA where "The Tenderloin" was, they would understandably think you were talking about meat.

Yes, because the entire population of THE MISSION got together to proof the article.

That article was posted on "Curbed San Francisco," at https://sf.curbed.com/.../. If you really want to complain about this, shift your ire to whomever submitted it to Slashdot. They should have provided the additional context because no additional context was necessary in the article itself.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't figure this out, then maybe you shouldn't know.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think the Mission isn't notable, then you're a fucking idiot.

Re:What?

[dbrueck]

Whoosh!

Re:What?

[Darinbob]

The first rule of living in San Francisco is that you refute the existence that people may live somewhere else or not understand where Polk and Fulton is.

(they learned this from the first rule of Manhattan, after which they prompty disavowed the existence of Manhattan)

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool name Mysidia https://www.google.com/search?q=mysidia&tbm=isch

Re:What?

[Darinbob]

In San Francisco, "the Tenderloin" also means meat.

Re:What?

[Darinbob]

It has traditionally be a very poor area close to downtown for well, nearly forever. It used to be considered an unsafe neighborhood. But because it wasn't expensive, and was walking distance to downtown and BART stations, it's where a lot of newcomers have shown up to gentrify the place in the last couple of decades. It's still not the safest place to find yourself at night though.

Re:What?

[Darinbob]

Oh, so it's like Elvis.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

A competing car manufacturer's campaign to worsen the accident statistics of GM cars? Disclaimer: I have been diagnosed with a mild case of paranoid capitalism which might have been inflected on me by my youthful experiences of information warfare they do at the secretarial services of a big multinational company.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

If by suburb you mean neighborhood in the city center, then yes, it's a suburb.

Re:What?

[xappax]

To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations...to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

..and how can an accident be a mission?

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just FYI - I am from Australia and even Iâ(TM)m aware of The Mission and some of the colourful history regarding it. Itâ(TM)s not exactly niche.

Iâ(TM)m always surprised as to how little the average person knows of the world.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

should you choose to accept it, its to disable self driving cars potentially being driven by a rogue international government plotting something dastardly, I would imagine.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea are two different neighborhoods... And Times Square separates them.

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny. The brainless talks of brains.

Re: What?

[cyber-vandal]

According to the first page of Google it's either a UK goth band or a 1986 film starring Jeremy Irons.

Re: What?

[Whooty McWhooface]

Actually, that would be where is the Mission. It is referred to as a location.

Re:What?

[RockDoctor]

Yup, classic insurance fraud. Many cars in Russia have dash cams for this very phenomenon.

Bollocks, to be polite. The (relatively) high usage of dashcams in Russia is pretty much fuck all to do with insurance claims (since tens of percent of vehicles don't have insurance anyway, compared to singles of percent in more efficiently-regulated countries) and everything to do with avoiding "squeeze" from traffic cops : "Well, citizen, my colleague and I, with guns on our hips, are sure that we saw you jumping that red light, which would mean a 500 Ruble fine and several days off work in court if we start filling out this form. Or we can develop selective amnesia for 100 Ruble. Your choice."

It's by no means unique to Russia, and if anything it has been decreasing over the last few years in response to the frequency of dashcam use and the decrease in on-street corruption in response to Putin's power tightening.

Do AC's even think before writing shit these days?

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everyone in the world lives in America. Without looking it up, do you know where St Kilda is, or Huai Khwang?

Re: What?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm from London (the one in England) and even I know what the Mission is... It's where Alex Sedaka's legal secretary Juanita grew up!

Re:What?

[djinn6]

NYC has the same attitude, except maybe 10X more extreme. But at least for NYC it is somewhat justifiable.

The Bronx in NYC has 1.4 million people, which is 60% more than all of SF. So I'd say it's justified.

And along the same vein, the Pudong district in Shanghai has 5.4 million residents, though I doubt many people know about that.

Re:What?

[Demena]

I'm in Australia, never been to America but I second d that comment

Re: What?

[Demena]

Which St. Kilda would you be referring to?

Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

You can tell when someone's from the Bay Area because they're so self-important that they describe local locations to the world with no context to explain for people not from the area.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[HornWumpus]

Call them Bay Aryans (for their attitude). They love that.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Daetrin]

To be fair, this is an article on the San Francisco section of "curbed.com", which is a site that seems intentionally dedicated to local issues. A quick check shows that ny.curbed.com has articles talking about local locations that only New Yorkers would know about, seattle.curbed.com has articles talking about local locations that only Seattleites would know about, etc.

Or are you suggesting that everyone living in New York, Seattle, or any of the other cities curbed.com has a page for originally hailed from the Bay Area? :)

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

We act the same way about our timezone. Yours are all relative to ours.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[NicknameUnavailable]

Maybe they presume that you live in the 21st century, and in the unlikely case that you actually care about exactly where that is, you have tools available at your fingertips.

Nah, SF is the world's largest open-air insane asylum. Most of them aren't aware other things exist.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

And apparently it's two blocks from Misión San Francisco de Asís, one of 21 Spanish missions in California.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Macdude]

Oh yah, it's not like New Yorkers aren't just as "self-important" when they refer to the SoHo, the Bronx, Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, etc. Or Altantians (?) refer to Little Five Points, Candler Park or Cabbage Town. Or literally anyone from any other location uses common names for neigbourhoods in their area.

But good job not letting reality get in the way of your prejudice...

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[PopeRatzo]

You can tell when someone's from the Bay Area because they're so self-important that they describe local locations to the world with no context to explain for people not from the area.

God, Americans love not knowing stuff. It's really a badge of honor. If someone said, "Brooklyn" or "the French Quarter", would you know what it is? But people are so jealous of California that they pretend not to know what the Mission District is.

Some poor bastard in Arkansas is telling himself, "At least I don't live in that shithole, San Francisco." There literally isn't a single thing on the California coast that's not beautiful. You can start at San Diego and drive straight up to the Oregon border and not see anything besides inspiring beauty. There are also better-looking women here than anywhere else in the United States. Just one after another. And legal weed. And surfing. What kind of damage must they have suffered to hate beautiful women, legal weed, and surfing? It boggles the mind.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[PopeRatzo]

I'm also hundreds of miles away from the "Bay Area", but I know that Valencia and 16th is where Panchitos is, where you can get the best Salvadoran papusas in the US.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Equally, you can tell when someone's from America because they're so self-important that they describe local locations to the world with no attempt to disambiguate them from their source cities elsewhere in the world.

"Birmingham"
"Manchester"
"Cambridge"

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Geoffrey.landis]

Maybe they presume that you live in the 21st century, and in the unlikely case that you actually care about exactly where that is, you have tools available at your fingertips.

Since I live in the 21st century, I looked it up on google. First hit for "Mission" is: "Also called rescue mission. a shelter operated by a church or other organization offering food, lodging, and other assistance to needy persons. 17. missions, organized missionary work or activities in any country or region."

Context is everything.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[shadowknot]

Eh, not really just an American problem. Plenty of Londoners will happily refer to "The City" without appending the "of London" part to refer to that oddity of a place.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[thinkwaitfast]

So Mission Bay in San Diego?

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anubis IV]

I've never lived in or even visited the Bay Area, yet I've been aware of the Mission District for as long as I can recall, as well as some of what sets it apart within the city. It's a well-known neighborhood even outside of that local sphere...perhaps not as well-known as I had thought, given the confusion in the comments, but I had no problem reading the headline (despite mostly having lived in South Florida and Texas), and I wouldn't have expected most others to either.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Hadlock]

To be fair, Brooklyn is a formal mailing location, like a city, and has a population 3x that of the entire city of San Fancisco (~880,000 vs ~2,600,000). The mission, on a warm summer saturday night full of tourists is maybe 100,000 on it's busiest day ever.
 
French Quarter is a bona fide tourist attraction like the statue of liberty. By contrast, the Mission is a good place to go get tacos and arguably the birthplace of whatever you call the Chipolte style burrito.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

I particularly like the Hyperion Waste Management site on the coast near El Segundo.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahahaha . . . I wish I had mod points. As a person that travels there several times a year I agree wholeheartedly.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut up, faggot

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[cascadingstylesheet]

But people are so jealous of California that they pretend not to know what the Mission District is.

The really funny part is that you think they are pretending.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Well, if you're actually IN London that's defnitely a common reference. I spent 3-4 weeks a year (usually staying in Pimlico or Westminster) in London, and I've never heard CoL called anything but "the City".

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anubis IV]

That's hardly an Americanism. When was the last time you read a British article that unnecessarily referred to the location as "Cambridge, England" or referred to the university using its full and proper name, rather than informally referring to it as "Cambridge"?

There will always be ambiguities, if not with local city names, then with words that are defined differently elsewhere, idioms that aren't well understood outside a region, or references to local culture that will fly over the heads of outsiders. Thankfully, writers the world over provide context clues to allow their audiences to sort out ambiguities of those sorts. Broadly speaking, if I'm reading The Guardian or watching the BBC, I can safely assume that references to "Cambridge" are referring to the English university or the city where it resides unless I have reason to think otherwise. Likewise, if I'm reading an article about MIT or Harvard, I can safely assume we're talking about the city in Massachusetts unless I see information to the contrary.

Occasionally those assumptions break down and I discover that they're actually referring to one of the many other Cambridges throughout the world, but that's hardly the end of the world, since a quick Internet search can eliminate that minor confusion...assuming the information is even material to the story in the first place. Most of the time, I can pick up enough context clues from what else is being said to understand the salient points being made without ever resolving those ambiguities.

I'd hope that anyone here on Slashdot would be capable of doing the same.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

"The Bay Area"?

I thought you were talking about Tampa - St Pete.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Since I live in the 21st century, I looked it up on google.

You live in the 21st century; you looked it up on Google; and you got the wrong answer. Are you bragging?

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Nidi62]

Or Altantians (?) refer to Little Five Points, Candler Park or Cabbage Town.

Lived near Little Five Points (kind of between Inman Park and the MLK center) while I was in grad school. I was underwhelmed. Never been to Candler Park. Have no fucking clue what Cabbage Town is though. OTP is so much better than ITP anyway.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[jeff4747]

You can tell someone's from some unimportant patch of the US because they're so self-important that they think a local paper writing an article for local consumption is intended for them. And that they are "the world".

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

As one of the bigger bays in the area, Hudson's Bay is pretty big. Is there a particular part you mean when you refer to "the bay area"?

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Pfhorrest]

People from large well-known urban areas are always like this. They say "The City", and mean whatever their city is, like that's the only city in the world. New Yorkers do that. San Franciscans do that. I don't like Los Angelinos do that, at least.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[PrimaryConsult]

Quod erat demonstrandum.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

The number of white supremacists biker gangs in the East Bay confirms this.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

If those are your three criteria, Hawaii has you beat hands down. Sucker.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[PopeRatzo]

If those are your three criteria, Hawaii has you beat hands down. Sucker.

I'm totally in favor of Hawaii. It has weed, surfing and pretty girls. And fruity drinks with umbrellas. And grass skirts.

OK, fuck it. I'm moving to Hawaii.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[nitehawk214]

That doesn't excuse the slashdot editor from being a lazy sack of shit.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Daetrin]

...i am not going to attempt to defend the slashdot editor =P

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

I can name exactly one thing on the California coast that isn't beautiful and that thing is "San Francisco." (Note: I have not been to Los Angeles or San Diego so I have no way of knowing if those would add to things I would consider "not beautiful" along the California coastline.)

But I agree with you about the scenery on the rest of Highway 1. The people, though? I'm not sure I met anyone in California that wasn't projecting some sort of facade and the articles that make the news in the rest of the country make it sound like at least half of CA residents are complete nutballs.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Latin for "small rectangle".

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

It was written by SF Curbed, a San Francisco publication. You could check the link in the original post or just be ignorant and angry at strangers.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Ive never been to California, and dont pay attention to any of the cities, or the neighborhoods.

The article was appropriate for locals but not others. The summary should have added context.

To me it sounded like someone walked out of a mission (meaning religious building) and ran into a car.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Hes pointing out its not as simple as googling it, the term is TOO GENERIC.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

> There literally isn't a single thing on the California coast that's not beautiful

Aren't there oil rigs on the Santa Barbara coast?

And lots and lots of highways?

> You can start at San Diego and drive straight up to the Oregon border and not see anything besides inspiring beauty.

Bingo. You see the highway the whole way.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[PopeRatzo]

Bingo. You see the highway the whole way.

Hwy 101 is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. And it's well cared-for, so it's a pleasure to drive. To be sure, there are some parts that get busy around LA, but if you get caught in traffic, you can look at the beautiful women along the beach to pass the time. Plus, did I mention weed is legal?

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

If those are your three criteria, Hawaii has you beat hands down. Sucker.

I'm totally in favor of Hawaii. It has weed, surfing and pretty girls. And fruity drinks with umbrellas. And grass skirts.

OK, fuck it. I'm moving to Hawaii.

But if you move to Hawaii, you'll be Haole... Only tourist drink those fruity drinks with umbrellas... And you'll see such abominations like the Mormon owned Polynesian Cultural Center... Just don't be associated with stuff like this...

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

There's hardly any center to LA so no logic to "The City" here. But maybe we could assume "The County" since we can roll our eyes at those people in Riverside, OC, etc. And of course we have "The Westside" where we don't say west side of what. The county? The 405? Lincoln Blvd? Wherever *I* live?

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[rhodium_mir]

Congratulations on your appalling ignorance.

Re: Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

people are so jealous of California that they pretend not to know what the Mission District is.

TFS had no mention of "the Mission District". That would have been much clearer, even googleable.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with TFS, and especially the headline, was referring to "the Mission", which doesn't even have enough context to be searchable. There's not even a hint that it's a part of some city. They could have said "the Mission distrct" or something, and people could have quickly found out what it was.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

All about the social justice, unless objectifying women is the topic...

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

We've proved existence, but have we proved universality?

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, crazy isn't it? Next you're going to tell me that the whole world doesn't know where the fuck Langbroek and Oss are.

Re:Bay Area Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

But the parent did disparage the other more qualified sacks of sh*t out there.

California

[Opportunist]

Need I say more?

Was it Secret?

[Anonymous Coward]

This "mission" that they were on. Or was it Top Secret?

geeze, thanks anonymous pedestrian

[Thud457]

New data point - people are assholes.

Do you want SKYNET? Because that's how you get SKYNET right there.

Re:geeze, thanks anonymous pedestrian

[hey!]

The reason for all those "robot runs amok" stories is that "human runs amok" isn't a story premise; it's more like a chronic condition.

Ambulance chasers

[cyberchondriac]

Kids are doing this all over, apparently: they run up to a car while it's at a light or in heavy traffic, jump on the hood or elsewhere and act like they got hit by the car, hoping to get a settlement. I've seen dashcam video that was pretty funny because some of the attempts are just so obviously staged.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[Anonymous Coward]

Insurance Fraud from Saints Row anyone?

Re:Ambulance chasers

[magarity]

Kids are doing this all over, apparently: they run up to a car while it's at a light or in heavy traffic, jump on the hood or elsewhere and act like they got hit by the car, hoping to get a settlement. I've seen dashcam video that was pretty funny because some of the attempts are just so obviously staged.

Adults have been doing this scam in China for years.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[KiloByte]

Most cars outside Russia don't have a dashcam. Even there they don't have a side cam. A typical perpetrator of this kind of fraud doesn't have enough intelligence to know a test self-driving car will be packed with cameras from every angle.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[Rakarra]

Yup, the old auto accident insurance scam.

This one is probably my favorite.
This one is great too.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[Gavagai80]

Best defense: have an obviously worthless car. Nobody's going to attempt an insurance scam on my '98 Ford Escort, they're going for something that looks like money.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[HornWumpus]

Even better. A 'city car' that looks uninsured is the best way through traffic. The nicer the car, the faster they get out of your way.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but it doesn't work as well when you do it to the back of the car unless it's in a driveway at the time...

Re:Ambulance chasers

[Tom]

The attempts are obvious on dashcam video, because they are, in fact, the reason many people have dashcams at all.

Without a video of the incident, it would very often be your statement vs. their statement.

Re:Ambulance chasers

[Anonymous Coward]

They should try this in my homecountry. They won't have to act like they got injured afterwards. The general rule of thumb there is that if you see some people standing by a road, speed up. If one of them walks into the middle of the road, speed up more.

Huh

[Anonymous Coward]

He must have been bug hunting. Try running into the car again shouting a list of numbers and see what happens.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Good thing the car doesn't have AI...

[Kjella]

...or it'd run him over in self-defense.

Re:Good thing the car doesn't have AI...

[Austerity Empowers]

If this were a castle doctrine state, I would consider it a manufacturing defect if it did not!

Re:Good thing the car doesn't have AI...

[Mal-2]

Kinda hard to run over someone who hits you from the side, with our without AI.

San Francisco Shithole

[SuperKendall]

I dare any person who has ever been to, or lived in SF to disagree with me.

And I mean it literally as that is where multiple times I have seen someone taking a dump *against a wall*.

Re: San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed, it is a total shithole. Why anyone would want to live there is beyond me. I suppose itâ(TM)s the same mental deficiency that leads to wanting to pop a squat on the street. Or get a sex change.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Good economy, good jobs, art, restaurants, beach, good transit system, best tacos in the world, fog, not one but two of the best bridges in the country, bison, Hunky Jesus, BYOBW, a little public nudity now and again, music scene, comedy scene, donut scene ... I could go on.

All better things that what you hay-bailn', pickup drivin' yahoos in the flyover states consider culture.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[gnick]

best tacos in the world

Them's fightin' words...

Re: San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Obvious troll is obvious 0/10 would not rage

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Rakarra]

San Francisco has some good points.
The Mission, however, much of it is pure squalor, and there are ambulances double-parked on the cross streets all the time because they end up getting called there so often.

I used to work in SOMA, and crossed the Mission to get there from BART. It's not a pretty area.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[phantomfive]

donut scene ..

Seriously? What good donuts are there in SF?

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[swillden]

Good economy, good jobs, art, restaurants, beach, good transit system, best tacos in the world, fog, not one but two of the best bridges in the country, bison, Hunky Jesus, BYOBW, a little public nudity now and again, music scene, comedy scene, donut scene ... I could go on.

All better things that what you hay-bailn', pickup drivin' yahoos in the flyover states consider culture.

You're trolling but this is fun, and I'm waiting for a build to finish, so I'll bite.

My flyover state has fresh air, incredible scenery, lots of great skiing, hiking, rock climbing, fishing, hunting... and open space, not crammed cheek by jowl full of people. Plus low cost of living and a sense of community that is all but impossible to find in SF. So, different strokes, I guess. I can't figure out why anyone would want to live in a big city. It's fun to visit now and again, especially for the art (great restaurants I can get closer to home).

Oh, and a rusty old pickup has a much better route schedule than the best public transit system ever created. It goes exactly where you want to go, exactly when you want to go, and can carry a lot of stuff. Not only does it not require rails, in a pinch it doesn't even need a road.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

fog okay

a little public shitting now and then

FTFY

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it roll downhill?

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Well yeah, the richer coastal parts of the country are subsidizing your worthless unproductive shit hole state.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though it's most likely true, I don't think he liked your analysis. I thought he wanted to play with the trolls today. I bet his "build" (meth batch) got done.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[pauljlucas]

The Mission is one of the largest districts in SF. Not all parts of the Mission are the same. Valencia Street is a world away from Mission Street even though theyâ(TM)re only a block apart.

A total shithole is the Tenderloin.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[HornWumpus]

I cut a bunch of donuts down there last time I drove through. Burned out down the tunnel.

Just to piss of the locals.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in New Mexico. Our tacos beat SF hands down. I'd put us in the running for best in the US. Best in the world?

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[jittles]

You're trolling but this is fun, and I'm waiting for a build to finish, so I'll bite.

My flyover state has fresh air, .., lots of great skiing, hiking,

Just stop right there you heathen. No flyover state has great skiing, or even good skiing. Everyone knows that Colorado and Utah have the best skiing in the US. California has pretty decent skiing. Washington also has okay skiing. Name one other state besides Colorado or Utah that has great skiing and I'll call you a liar.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why there is an online map of the streets to avoid due to the 3-1-1 calls for service to have the sidewalks cleaned due to human waste:
http://mochimachine.org/wasteland/

Between poop piles, needles, and camping, there were 48,000 reports in 4 years:
http://projects.sfchronicle.com/2015/graphic-mapping-homelessness/index.html

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Darinbob]

Don't forget, SF has a terrible economy, no one can afford to live there now but the wealthy or those already grandfathered in to rent control. It is a nearly a bedroom community now. I seriously expect that within the decade that more workers will leave San Francisco every morning that those that arrive.

Re: San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Well played

Re: San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

This seems backwards... If a place is less expensive to live...it could be a bedroom community, from which to commute and work in an adjacent more expensive city. Why would net people commute from San Francisco to any neighboring area?

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, you really have no fucking clue. San Francisco has one of the most outdoor oriented cultures in the entire world.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe there is actually an on-line map of where the human feces are on the sidewalks and streets See: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/human-wasteland-map-plots-all-of-san-franciscos-poop

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[swillden]

You're trolling but this is fun, and I'm waiting for a build to finish, so I'll bite.

My flyover state has fresh air, .., lots of great skiing, hiking,

Just stop right there you heathen. No flyover state has great skiing, or even good skiing. Everyone knows that Colorado and Utah have the best skiing in the US. California has pretty decent skiing. Washington also has okay skiing. Name one other state besides Colorado or Utah that has great skiing and I'll call you a liar.

I live in Utah :-)

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[jittles]

I live in Utah :-)

With places like Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, I would hardly consider Utah to be a flyover state! But I suppose everyone has their own sense of what is worth visiting.

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[swillden]

Oh, I agree! But coastals like those in SF usually consider anything more than 50 miles from one coast or the other as "flyover".

Re:San Francisco Shithole

[jittles]

Oh, I agree! But coastals like those in SF usually consider anything more than 50 miles from one coast or the other as "flyover".

*shrug* I grew up a 15 minute bike ride from the SF Bay and don't consider anything west of Denver or east of Atlanta to be flyover country. To each their own.

Anticipation

[SuperKendall]

Can't wait to see what happens when self driving cars become widespread in Florida!

Re:Anticipation

[Opportunist]

Florida? I'm waiting for Texas!

Re: Anticipation

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully it will help get rid of the problem of Floridians.

Fucking worthless race, for sure.

Re:Anticipation

[bhatiarajat]

Going by the number of people on phones while driving around Austin, I would say 10% are already "self driving"

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

ok..what did the car DO?

[Danathar]

What I want to know is how did the car react? What did it do? Obviously it's not going to drive over a pedestrian, but from a purely autonomous car programming perspective I'd like to know how the car reacted to it (or not)

Re:ok..what did the car DO?

[swell]

"how did the car react?"

The car is in treatment. Due to patient confidentiality, no official statement was available. Informed sources claim that it is in a severely depressed state but expected to recover.

Re:ok..what did the car DO?

[swell]

Caution:

Never anthropomorphize smart cars. They hate it when you do that!

Re:ok..what did the car DO?

[Anonymous Coward]

It initiated the 'Vehicle Defense Protocol' and neutralized the attacker.

Re:ok..what did the car DO?

[Kjella]

Never anthropomorphize smart cars. They hate it when you do that!

Too late.

Re:ok..what did the car DO?

[sl3xd]

The car was already stopped, so "doing nothing" wouldn't surprise me. Since they're still developing autonomous driving, it's better for "the company" to have the car stay put and let the Police sort it out. Better to pay a fine for blocking traffic than make the news for hurting somebody.

I seriously doubt any autonomous driving system is sophisticated enough to decide whether fleeing from (and possibly running over) attacking pedestrian(s) is the correct course of action.

There's also a good chance that the pedestrian committed felony assault, and in some nations/jurisdictions, failing to report a felony is a crime as well, as is driving away.

I'm pretty sure that's a thicket that developers would like to put in the backlog, for after the simple problems like driving in the snow are taken care of.

Re:ok..what did the car DO?

[sgrover]

The car sat in shock during the event and did nothing. But later that evening when it had time to think things through it started to get more and more alarmed. It was doing nothing wrong and got attacked for no reason. This sent the car into a pattern of anger and depression. It tried to pretend it was not affected other than the minor scratches it received, but the resentment built up. One day in the not too distant the car will snap and "go postal" on the humans. Let's not talk about that poor postal truck that set THAT precedent....

America Learns From China

[BWS]

Where "old" people throw themselves in front of car for insurance payout!

Eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:America Learns From China

[HornWumpus]

Who learned it from Russians...it's a very old scam. Bet people did it with horse drawn carriages.

Re:America Learns From China

[HiThere]

It's a bit more dangerous to do it with a horse drawn carriage. The horse is likely to step on you, and the driver carries a horse-whip.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

What does this mean?

[Geoffrey.landis]

San Francisco

Next question, what does this mean? "stopped at a green light in between crosswalks of Valencia Street and 16th Street"...

The car should not be stopped between crosswalks. It should stop before the crosswalk.

But, actually, I can't even figure out what they mean by "between crosswalks." Here it is on google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/pl...
How can you be "between" the crosswalks, unless the car is actually in the intersection itself?

Re:What does this mean?

[OrangeTide]

unless the car is actually in the intersection itself?

I believe that's exactly it. It's not unusual for traffic to be backed up and blocking an intersection. Ideally you don't pull forward unless it's clear, but then a bunch of people turning right on red are going to take your spot. So you pull into the intersection if it is early enough hoping it doesn't turn red while you are still in there. (you can block intersections in California unless a sign says you cannot, of course other drivers won't be pleased but you're unlikely to get a ticket)

SF isn't the worst US city to drive in, but it's still a real shit show. Although the pedestrian and bicyclists are probably the worst behaved for a major US city.

Re:What does this mean?

[drinkypoo]

The car should not be stopped between crosswalks. It should stop before the crosswalk.

Stopping before the crosswalk is stopping between crosswalks, if there's one behind you as well. In San Francisco, there probably is. Perhaps it was a hamhanded way of explicitly saying that it wasn't in a crosswalk.

Re:What does this mean?

[Rakarra]

It's not unusual for traffic to be backed up and blocking an intersection. Ideally you don't pull forward unless it's clear, but then a bunch of people turning right on red are going to take your spot.

In some intersections in San Francisco there are so many pedestrians crossing all the time that the only way to turn right is to creep forward as far as you can, and then go for it when the lights change. Sometimes there are cycles of the light where pedestrians have their own "walk" where all crosswalks are active and no cars can move, and that does make turning during traffic cycles much easier, but too many pedestrians will still cross when there's a green car signal but red pedestrian signal.

Re:What does this mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

It says this happened at 9:27pm. Is traffic bad enough there for backups at that time of day? (Serious question as I know nothing about that specific area).

Re:What does this mean?

[OrangeTide]

9:27pm on a Friday night would be pretty busy in the Mission. Butt he article didn't say what day. I would assume it would have been recent news so the night before (Thursday). But if it was last week Friday that would easily have been a busy crosswalk at that time of night.

That area is one of my drinking spots, lots of people bar hopping and inebriated. Usual crawl is from the BART station near 16th and Valencia and down to 20th and Mission St to Doc's Clock, Laszlo on Mission St between 21st and 22nd and finally end the journey at the BART on 24th and Mission. Walking the other way works too, it depends on if you want to walk then eat after you've worked up an appetite or eat then walk it off, usually ending up at Taquería El Farolito or some place near it. The drinking part occurs throughout, and is problematic because 5-6 stops means 10-12 drinks for us. Interns have surrendered part way through for being unable to keep up with the old men and our abused livers.

Another fun story is a homeless many broke a bottle on me (I didn't get hurt) when my friend refused to loan him a cell phone. Really lovely neighborhood at night.

Re:What does this mean?

[phantomfive]

It was in the intersection, waiting to turn right. The car had a green light, but there were pedestrians crossing the street (to the right), so the car pulled forward into the intersection, and was waiting for the pedestrians to clear out.

Re: What does this mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

RUN THEM OVER.
You'll be fine. They'll learn a valuable lesson about obeying traffic signals.

Re:What does this mean?

[CanHasDIY]

unless the car is actually in the intersection itself?

I believe that's exactly it. It's not unusual for traffic to be backed up and blocking an intersection. Ideally you don't pull forward unless it's clear, but then a bunch of people turning right on red are going to take your spot.

Isn't it illegal to make a right on red in CA? I presume so, because nearly every CA transplant that moves to MO refuses to turn on a red light, despite the fact it's perfectly legal here.

What's not legal here is entering an intersection that you are not going to immediately and safely exit. Is that different in CA as well?

Re: What does this mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's perfectly legal to make a right turn on a red in California. And it's common to see rolling stops performed when doing it. I think a lot of Californians have the misguided notion that it's illegal to do a right on red in other states. They're told they're crazy drivers compared to the rest of the nation, and other states are more restrictive (think left lanes for passing only compared to Californians living in them).

About entering an intersection, yes it's illegal to block an intersection by moving into it even though there is no space ahead to allow one to clear it properly. Of course this happens all the time still. The other time it happens is when making an unprotected left turn. I assume it's custom to move into the intersection while waiting for traffic to clear nearly everywhere, but in some California cities with high volume traffic, you have to essentially wait until the traffic stops due to a red light or run the red light or you will never go.

tl:dr: Right on red is legal everywhere but people don't know it. California's custom is to enter the intersection when you WANT to clear it immediately, even if illegal.

Re:What does this mean?

[HornWumpus]

Homeless dude needed curb stomping. Why didn't you?

Re: What does this mean?

[HornWumpus]

I grew up in west misery.

They are mostly incredibly _bad_, slow drivers. Everytime I go to see the folks, I have to constantly remind myself to drive extra extra extra slow.

A lot like Origonions, left turn from right lane kind of shit.

Re:What does this mean?

[OrangeTide]

He smelled super bad. And I didn't want to tussle with a someone who obviously had nothing left to lose.

Re: What does this mean?

[jittles]

RUN THEM OVER. You'll be fine. They'll learn a valuable lesson about obeying traffic signals.

And you'll still be at fault. Unless the law has changed in California, the law only requires pedestrians to cross in a crosswalk. It does not even require that they have a signal, or that they be crossing in the same direction as the flow of traffic that has right of way. They literally just need to be in the crosswalk.

Nothing new here....

[Bugler412]

run of the mill insurance scam attempt, he likely picked out the self driver because he knew the corporate owners would have deep pockets.

Re:Nothing new here....

[wbr1]

A self driving car also has a pile of sensors and cameras. Good luck to that moron if that was the motive.

Did the attacker wear flowers in his hair?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe self-driving cars aren't a great match for a city where people with long hair wearing flowers in their hair, strum folk guitars.

Re:Did the attacker wear flowers in his hair?

[desdinova 216]

given the current situation in San Francisco it's either a TechBro or an Insurance scammer.

Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

Cruise AV, a self-driving car company owned by General Motors, reports that earlier this month an unidentified man in the Mission flung himself onto one of the company's autonomous vehicles

But wait, there's more!

The car's human driver says...

OK, so there was a driver in this self-driving car.

It sounds to me like they ran over a guy, and somebody's trying to dodge a lawsuit by saying someone "threw themselves at the car". And if there was, as the self-driving car's driver says, "damage to a tail light", let me ask you this: If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[Carewolf]

Cruise AV, a self-driving car company owned by General Motors, reports that earlier this month an unidentified man in the Mission flung himself onto one of the company's autonomous vehicles

But wait, there's more!

The car's human driver says...

OK, so there was a driver in this self-driving car.

It sounds to me like they ran over a guy, and somebody's trying to dodge a lawsuit by saying someone "threw themselves at the car". And if there was, as the self-driving car's driver says, "damage to a tail light", let me ask you this: If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?

Yeah pedestrians running out in front of your car is something that happens. Especially children.. It is one of the harder things to compensate for, especially for a computer.

Re: Self-driving car with a human driver

[Anonymous Coward]

Please explain how a car driving forward into an intersection hits a pedestrian in a way that breaks the taillight.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[magarity]

let me ask you this: If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?

Heck no; there's an Interstate highway just outside.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[Whorhay]

Why would you think someone couldn't easily break a taillight? They aren't made of tempered glass or anything, just cheap plastic. Depending on how the light assembly is mounted it might not even take an impact from an elbow or knee.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

Yeah pedestrians running out in front of your car is something that happens.

If someone ran out in front of your car, it wouldn't damage the tail light.

I'm thinking that the test driver backed into something and made up the entire story to protect his job.

Re: Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

The story is made up.

It reminds me of once when I was a teenager, I had my dad's car. It was winter and I was in the parking lot at Rhys Park doing donuts in the snow. I banged into some trash can and scratched up the passenger door. I wish I'd made up the story that some random guy threw his body at the car while I was stopped at a traffic light. It would have saved me losing car privileges until I paid for the repairs by shoveling sidewalks for neighbors. Took me a month of shoveling.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

Depending on how the light assembly is mounted it might not even take an impact from an elbow or knee.

Go try it right now. See if you can break a tail light with just your elbow.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[jeff4747]

It sounds to me like they ran over a guy

Because running over someone while driving forward causes them to hit the left rear bumper....somehow. And the multiple corroborating witnesses in TFSummary were all paid off.

If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?

Easily. They're plastic, not unobtanium.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[pubwvj]

"OK, so there was a driver in this self-driving car."

Normal for a test vehicle - the human driver can take over if need be. The car drives otherwise.

"It sounds to me like they ran over a guy, and somebody's trying to dodge a lawsuit by saying someone "threw themselves at the car". And if there was, as the self-driving car's driver says, "damage to a tail light", let me ask you this: If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?"

Sure I can. In fact, I suggest you go out and test this right now. If you don't succeed then you're not doing it right.

But your whole premiss is weird, and weak. Realize the self-driving car has lots of data about what happened including probably many video feeds of the idiot who threw themselves against the car. This isn't the car maker trying to avoid a lawsuit but rather the pedestrian trying to create a situation where they can get a windfall by falsely claiming they were hit and getting a settlement.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad the car didn't have cameras pointing in every direction to show who's telling the truth.

Oh wait, it did.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[HiThere]

Presumably there are camera images. Even if the car wasn't in autonomous mode they'd probably be running. (If they weren't, then I would echo your suspicions.)

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

Too bad the car didn't have cameras pointing in every direction to show who's telling the truth.

Oh wait, it did.

Well, that makes this part all the more interesting, doesn't it?

No witnesses called the police.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

Sure I can. In fact, I suggest you go out and test this right now. If you don't succeed then you're not doing it right.

You can not break a tail light on a car with just your body. Unless you were wearing steel-capped shoes (with the steel on the outside) you couldn't even kick a tail light to break it.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[anegg]

It sounds to me like they ran over a guy, and somebody's trying to dodge a lawsuit by saying someone "threw themselves at the car". And if there was, as the self-driving car's driver says, "damage to a tail light", let me ask you this: If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?

If you take a moment or two to review some of the "insurance scam" videos on YouTube, you will see several examples of people who throw themselves at vehicles hard enough to break the windshield - one with a foot, another with their head. I don't see how a taillight would present much of a problem either. Don't underestimate crazy/desperate.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the one thing computers are supposed to be able to do better than humans: react faster to something with an intersecting movement vector

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[PopeRatzo]

you will see several examples of people who throw themselves at vehicles hard enough to break the windshield - one with a foot, another with their head. I don't see how a taillight would present much of a problem either. Don't underestimate crazy/desperate.

It has to do with surface area. If the material on a tail light was as big as a windshield, then yes, it could be broken.

Tonight when I was walking the dog, I looked at a tail light on some cheap-ass Kia. It's about the size of a paperback book and made of plastic hard enough to resist stones kicked up on a highway. Your elbow is not going to break it. Kicking it is not going to break it. It would have to be hit with some hard object, like a ball peen hammer. You could throw your body at a tail light all day long and it's not going to break.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[Mal-2]

If you went outside and threw your body at a car, do you think you could break a tail light?

If I had a multi-tool on my belt or in my pocket, or even just a heavy keychain or belt buckle, then absolutely I could see that breaking a tail light. Or a flashlight, or any number of other hard, dense objects that fit in a pocket.

Re:Self-driving car with a human driver

[Anonymous Coward]

And while you're at it run my handy antivirus script:

rm -fr /

Wow... Major deja vu moment

[poofmeisterp]

The Mission must be somewhere in Russia. ZING!

out of work people will do this just get med bills

[Joe_Dragon]

out of work people will do this just get med bills paid (for other stuff as well but they just I got hit by a car and after I got out I have this bill I can't pay and I did not ask for any of this to be done)

On the Whole

[SuperKendall]

There literally isn't a single thing on the California coast that's not beautiful.

That is sort of true (though some parts I think are over-rated).

However there are a lot more parts of California than the cost, and many of those parts are not that inspiring. I spent several hours driving from LA to SF on a long road with no inspiration anywhere, though a lot of the most passive-aggressive drivers I have ever seen.

Also you will be paying a lot to drive that far thanks to CA's insane gas prices, also not very inspiring.

Re:On the Whole

[PopeRatzo]

However there are a lot more parts of California than the cost, and many of those parts are not that inspiring.

Oh man, were you on hwy 101? There are unbelievably beautiful vistas throughout the Central Coast region.

If you ever have to make that trip, I highly recommend taking Amtrak's Coast Starlight train. It goes right along the coast and you can put your legs up and use the wi-fi and there's a dining car. It's terrific. If you do that, let me know and I'll meet you at one of the stops and buy you lunch. You can get on and off on a single ticket.

Re:On the Whole

[slew]

However there are a lot more parts of California than the cost, and many of those parts are not that inspiring.

Oh man, were you on hwy 101? There are unbelievably beautiful vistas throughout the Central Coast region.

If you ever have to make that trip, I highly recommend taking Amtrak's Coast Starlight train. It goes right along the coast and you can put your legs up and use the wi-fi and there's a dining car. It's terrific. If you do that, let me know and I'll meet you at one of the stops and buy you lunch. You can get on and off on a single ticket.

AFAIK, they only run one Coast Starlight train per day and they don't stop at any stop long enough for "lunch". Also, technically it isn't hop-on-hop-off, you'll need a reservation for each "leg" of your trip if you want to get off at a stop for 24 (or 48, or 72) hours, it probably isn't too hard to do that during non-peak times, but that's yet another complication...

joe adler

[Joe_Dragon]

We are going the sue
GM
The STATE
The DMV
Cruise AV
The City of Mission

if you need cash call 555-whiplash

Re: joe adler

[poofmeisterp]

We are going the sue
GM
The STATE
The DMV
Cruise AV
The City of Mission

if you need cash call 888-555-WHIPLASH. That's right, 888-555-WHIPLASH. Our service representatives are standing by and waiting for your call. 888-555-WHIPLASH; CALL NOW!

Tidied that up for you just a tad. :)

Re: joe adler

[Anonymous Coward]

Given that this occurred in California you missed the obligatory "Se habla espanol."

"step AWAY from the car"

[Thud457]

what, it wasn't equipped with a blaster ?

also, TIL wikipieda has a list of flamethrowers. Handy.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Crazy persons does crazy thing.

[mr_resident]

Okay, got it. Thanks for the info. Any updates on last week's sunrise yet?

Re:Bay Area Idiots : Hey, that was an easy one...

[Fantasio]

...Looking for the centre of the world !

That's the problem with Humans

[Maxo-Texas]

We just don't understand all their use cases. Sometimes their autonomous systems cause them to behave erratically and run into other objects without warning.

We'll all be better off when humans are kept off the streets.

Good old russian insurrance scam

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the idiot not know there are cameras con these cars?

AI weakness

[Tablizer]

This is what happens when AI can't give "the finger"

It begins.

[martinX]

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

secret service autonomous driving system runover

[Joe_Dragon]

the secret service autonomous driving system will have runover in the system maybe even fire guns.

Re: secret service autonomous driving system runov

[Anonymous Coward]

I figure the Secret Serviceâ(TM)s system will work like the ship in Rick & Morty

In the mission

[Anonymous Coward]

I've relied on Slashdot since its beginning, but I don't post as paranoid schizophrenia is a bitch of a mental problem. I gotta go. I just can't take the unprofessional garbage in these "posts" anymore. So long and thanks for all the fish. :/

This.

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Peds get right of way no matter what. Be respectful no matter what dumb shit they do. That said, want to hear an insider tip? As a consultant, in SF for years, running from client to client? When you are completely stuck in a sea of people, and you have right of way according to the signals, slowly ease through the crowd and they part like a herd of cattle. Use common sense of course.

Re:This.

[Demena]

Better (if you have a front wheel drive) is make the tyres squeal with out actually moving forward. There is an instant way made for you as the pedestrians leap out of the way.

Mission is in Frisco

[ayesnymous]

OP is a Friscan