Driver Rudeness vs. Vehicle Selection

Are Audi drivers actually the rudest on the road? Let’s measure it!

Whenever I get cut off by a BMW or Porsche (or maybe a Model 3), the first thought that pops into my biased brain is: “Well that figures.”

Again, it could just be bias. But then again, what if it isn’t? Could one design a system to measure “motorist empathy” and answer once and for all whether rude people are attracted to certain brands?

One could. One shall.

First: who cares?

Brands that are associated with friendly drivers, for one. Wouldn’t it be nice if, I don’t know, Chevy Bolt drivers knew for a fact that we, whoops: they, are the friendliest drivers on the road? That might garner some loyalty, or attract other friendly drivers.

OK, on to business.

The Solution: a Driver Rudeness Score based on driving habits associated with rudeness

First, we’d need to establish some metrics which are objective and consistently measured.

Here are two:

- rapid lane changes per mile driven (i.e., “cut off rate”)

- average following distance in meters (i.e., tailgating)

Both of those could be measured using the accelerometer in any modern phone. You could build an app to do this, which just runs in the background.

Let’s define each metric.

1. A rapid lane change is a sudden lateral acceleration followed by rapid correction in the other direction. I’m sure you could build some rules around this, or you could use deep learning like any modern engineer would.
2. Average following distance would ideally tap into the vehicle’s radar or vision system (if it has one), which is entirely impractical. A reasonable analog is braking behavior: the more often you brake, the closer you are to the car in front. I would measure this based on braking frequency above a given speed. If you brake constantly without coming to a stop, you are probably tailgating.

Both metrics would require some calibrating, but it’s a start.

Once the metrics are established, you could measure them for, say, 100 drivers for each make and model of interest for 6 months.

The worst make and model would be determined by taking the median value of its 100 drivers for each metric, then normalizing the median values across the other makes and models and ranking them. The brand with the lowest average ranking between the two metrics would by the friendliest. The highest average would be the rudest.

Here’s to hope, Audi drivers.