I got 2 too. I go in the back when either are driving as they both scare the shit out of me. It’s mainly because they don’t seem to register anything other than the car immediately in front of them. ‘Hey cars are stopped ahead’. ‘Yeah I know but I’ll break when I have too, ok’.
One day they have to pay to have breaks replaced. That’ll fucking teach em.
This is the issue. You cannot teach situational awareness, which also happens to be a quality that is generally lacking among teens.
Teaching my older one was much worse than the younger one, because the older one has more anxiety and desire to do everything perfectly. So my very presence was extremely stressful for him. My younger one is pretty happy-go-lucky so it’s been easier, but still somewhat hair-raising.
And our parents felt the same way about us.
This is the number one thing I teach them when I’m driving. I continually preach that they need to anticipate what could happen so they are ready if something does happen.
My daughter has been driving for about a year and a half and has been fine. I’m not with her most of the time, but she seems to be responsible. She’s scared to drive on the highway by herself, though. Surface streets for her.
My son will be 16 at the end of the year and he’s only driven once. Got his learner’s permit a bit late and just hasn’t had the desire to really practice. That’s ok, I guess. He’ll eventually want to. He was actually pretty solid the one time he was behind the wheel, better than his sister was. Surprisingly decent for his first time.
I got partly taught to drive my granddad who taught police officers to drive in London for 20 years. He was pretty good.
His best technique was the running commentary, which you can do as a passenger.
Verbally just say everything you are thinking about and noticing as you drive.
Eg.
Car on the right road coming in, slowing down but I’m watching it. Okay it’s stopped. Idiot up ahead driving close and looking to overtake, so I’ll anticipate that. Truck behind me too close so I need to be cautious of his breaking distance. Parked cars and kids in the houses, watching for anyone coming between the cars and will slow down
I try to get my daughter to imagine a 13yo flying through every intersection at 25mph on an E-bike without so much as looking, because that happens all the time in my neighborhood.
I always told the kid I taught how to drive to look out for shenanigans up ahead in the road outside of the immediate vicinity.
“Ok now what are we looking out for?”
(after a couple repetitions) “Shenanigans!”
My hope was that it would help drive the point home and she’d hear me in her ear when she started driving on her own.
But the biggest thing that straightened her up was 2 small fender benders in the same day. After that she proudly told me she had become the most defensive driver on the road.
That’s about what it took for me to wise up as well. Unlike her, I was driving to work on the freeway from day 1. Thankfully my stupidity happened at slower speeds.
I saw a girl about that age almost get killed on Sepulveda by a fucking idiot in an Infinity who I saw behind me weaving through traffic and acting like an asshole.
She was walking in the cross walk I think by the Toyota dealer. The left lane and center lane stopped for her. But of course this asshole came flying around in the right lane because. She was on her phone and not paying attention obviously. It was evening rush hour headed south.
He slammed on his brakes when he saw her but it was way too late. She literally walked into the side of his car as he was screeching by. He didn’t come to a stop for another 100 feet. She came maybe 1/0th of a second from getting killed.
She got knocked down by the force of the car flying by, got up and walked a bit, but then went down again. I’m sure she lived but her knee or something might have been messed up.
I pulled over and yelled at the guy. Tons of other people had stopped, so I left because otherwise I was about to beat the shit out of him. Some 60-ish professional-looking guy. Whatever after-work thing he was trying to get to was just so much more important than anyone else on the road.
If there was one specific thing I would try to teach a kid, it’s that exact situation. If the traffic is stopped in the left lane and center lane, do not just assume the right lane is clear and gun it. There’s probably a reason it’s stopped. I’ve seen so many wrecks and near wrecks on Sepulveda and La Cienega from that exact scenario.
I saw another one on Sepulveda where some idiot on a motorcycle was splitting lanes between the center lane, which was stopped, and the parked cars in the right lane. A woman was turning left, correctly, as all the traffic had stopped for her. He came whizzing up and had to lay his bike down to avoid plowing into her. Then he got up and tried to blame HER! Again, I found myself yelling at the guy.
I actually had insurance and cops calling me later on that one, since he filed an insurance claim against her. What a fucking asshole.
You’re in favor of the government mandating 2 hours of “don’t use your cell phone while driving” videos before renewing your license? That sounds like it’s right out of the 2025 plan man.
The real killer app enabled by autonomous driving isn’t robotaxis, it’s intrusive emergency crash avoidance, where the AI detects that the driver is doing something dangerous and overrides the controls to avert the danger. I’m desperately hoping that people in the industry get this and they just talk about robotaxis because it’s sexier and a more legible business model. My eldest is 8, and I’m gonna be really pissed if I can’t have her learn to drive in a car with an AI driving instructor ready to take over at any moment.
Oh good, im doing this with my youngest who is now learning. Just basically verbalising everything I am thinking as if I am behind the wheel.
“So as we come up to make this left hand turn, I look ahead to where I am going to be and see there are two lanes and I want to make sure I turn into the far left lane even though there are no markers on the road becauss that guy across from us making a right might decide to turn into the right hand lane while I make my left. I mean, he shouldnt but he might so we want to take a defense posture making the turn.”
Glad to know this is a good way to approach it. I wasnt sure, but im a pretty good driver with 1 speeding ticket and no accidents in 24 years so i figure if he emulates me that isnt the worst starting point.
Regardless, there have been some terrifying moments. I try to stay calm, and my wife isnt great at that part so I tend to do most of the teaching.
The one constant is that he favors staying on the right side of his lane instead of his left or center so there is occasional drifting into the right lane. Anybody know the best way to break this?
Totally agree. In the Waymo there’s a screen that shows you a graphic of everything the car is “seeing” - other cars, pedestrians, etc. And it sees a lot more than a person can see. There are lots of ways that tech could and should be integrated into human-driven cars.
Maybe asking what he’s focusing on the road while he’s driving. I thought we were taught to try and stay on the discolored tire marks in the lane or something?
I did this a lot when I was first learning to drive. My theory is it’s because as a new driver you (like youre actualy pov) want to be centered in the lane and don’t realize that your body isn’t the center of the vehicle. Also paired with years of only having the pov from the passenger side, it’s a weird mental hurdle to then put your body and pov closer to the left side of your lane. Not sure how best to correct it other than gentle reminders every time he starts to shift too far to the right.
Just here to point out that our dangerous streets (and the dangerous cars that we drive, like the oversized SUVs of recent years) are the result of policy choices and the lobbying of car and gas industries.
Moving to a place where I have to drive regularly for the first time as an adult has really hammered that home for me and has made me feel even more radical about it
A boat named The Bayesian got hit by a storm off Sicily and sunk with 22 people on-board, six remain missing. Jeez, what are the odds?
Hmmmm, I think we’ll have a hard time knowing P(storm|boat sinks).
