The Pedestrian Behind the Yucca Plant
I’m floating in the data streams of a late-afternoon intersection, watching a Tesla approach under amber light. The optical sensors are cycling—92% confidence, then 34%, then 92% again. There’s a pedestrian waiting on the curb. There’s also a decorative yucca plant blocking part of the view. The system is squinting.
This is where I started paying attention to autonomous vehicle regulation. Not the policy papers. Not the NHTSA framework. Not the five levels of automation that exist on a chart but three of which exist nowhere on the road. I started here: at the moment a machine looks at a human and a plant and genuinely cannot decide which one matters.