Preparing Self-Driving Cars for the Wild World of Developing Cities

Self-driving cars are no longer confined to controlled test tracks or even to placid suburban streets--they're tackling real traffic in US cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh. Learning how to drive in places like unruly Boston, a land of creative left turns and seemingly optional yields, comes with its challenges. Even Patriots fans look like goody two-shoes compared to drivers who have little to zero respect for lanes, traffic signals, warning signs, and speed limits. On wide roads without lanes and huge, anarchic intersections all over the world, human interaction dictates traffic flows, with each driver adjusting to others' maneuvers on the spot, regardless of what the rule book says. These informal systems work for the most part, but they come at a high cost.