Comment by swiftcoder
2 months ago
> To drive a car requires being able to read
Emphatically, it does not. Passing your drivers test may require being able to read, but plenty of illiterate people around the world drive just fine.
There is a reason we made all the common road signs recognisable purely by shape/colour, after all.
I don't think many drivers pay too much attention to signs apart from traffic lights.
Until they reverse on a highway and kill a family. Being able to drive isn't where parent poster put the bar
I don't see what reading has to do with knowing not to reverse on a highway. It's not like they put up big glowing signs that say "wrong way" like in a video game.
In Australia, you will see signs on freeway offramps pointing to any cars attempting to drive on to the freeway 'WRONG WAY GO BACK' [0]
Though it is true you don't need to be able to read to operate a vehicle, you /do/ need to be able to read to operate a vehicle safely.
And for those who can read: could you teach someone how to drive using an LLM? Sure. Safely? Probably not.
[0] https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/operations/roads-and-waterw...
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I agree that drivers should know not to reverse on a highway regardless of local signage.
But in situations that could be ambiguous, I think this is a regional difference - the US, Australia, part of the rest of the Americas use lots of text on road signs (including literal "wrong way" signs); Europe and much of the rest of the world use far less text (including purely pictographic "wrong way" signs). Especially important in Europe where drivers just can't learn 20+ languages.
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There literally are "no u turn" signage where you are supposed not to do that. They literally put up signs for it. It is not glowing in the sky, and it doesnt need to be, and doesnt help making a point strawmanning it.
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Not reversing on a highway doesn't require reading, just driving sense.
And whole lot of people have done stupid shit like that while perfectly able to read, many even with masters and PhDs.