Ever found yourself white-knuckling the steering wheel as the first snowflakes of the season send fellow drivers into a frenzy? Join Joe and me as we courageously navigate the slippery slopes of modern driving, from unpredictable weather to the tantalizing future of autonomous vehicles. We'll unpack the emotional rollercoaster of road rage and why sometimes, going with the traffic flow—or daringly against it—could actually save your life. It's a labyrinth of speed limits, traffic signals, and technological advancements that might make you question whether you're in the driver's seat or just along for the ride.
Strap in for an audibly delightful journey down the highways and byways of coping with long hauls. Whether you're a podcast enthusiast or an audiobook aficionado, we'll share our personal anecdotes on how to make those miles fly by in the company of good stories. And as we peek under the hood of America's driving statistics, we'll reveal the shocking number of road warriors just like us, and why understanding the complexities of aggressive driving is crucial for everyone's bumper-to-bumper well-being.
Finally, don't miss our light-hearted pit stop at the intersection of AI and human patience, where we ponder Microsoft Copilot—the latest co-driver that's more silicon than flesh and blood. With humor as our guide, we'll explore how embracing the absurdities of life, including the quirks of voice recognition technology, can keep us sane in a world where cars might just be getting a little too smart for comfort. So, tune in for a ride that's as informative as it is entertaining—and may just help you dodge your next automotive aggravation.
Ever found yourself white-knuckling the steering wheel as the first snowflakes of the season send fellow drivers into a frenzy? Join Joe and me as we courageously navigate the slippery slopes of modern driving, from unpredictable weather to the tantalizing future of autonomous vehicles. We'll unpack the emotional rollercoaster of road rage and why sometimes, going with the traffic flow—or daringly against it—could actually save your life. It's a labyrinth of speed limits, traffic signals, and technological advancements that might make you question whether you're in the driver's seat or just along for the ride.
Strap in for an audibly delightful journey down the highways and byways of coping with long hauls. Whether you're a podcast enthusiast or an audiobook aficionado, we'll share our personal anecdotes on how to make those miles fly by in the company of good stories. And as we peek under the hood of America's driving statistics, we'll reveal the shocking number of road warriors just like us, and why understanding the complexities of aggressive driving is crucial for everyone's bumper-to-bumper well-being.
Finally, don't miss our light-hearted pit stop at the intersection of AI and human patience, where we ponder Microsoft Copilot—the latest co-driver that's more silicon than flesh and blood. With humor as our guide, we'll explore how embracing the absurdities of life, including the quirks of voice recognition technology, can keep us sane in a world where cars might just be getting a little too smart for comfort. So, tune in for a ride that's as informative as it is entertaining—and may just help you dodge your next automotive aggravation.
Today on the Idiot's Guide we're talking about why do other drivers drive us so mad? We'll look at the numbers and see what they have to say for themselves. And it's been 30 years since Quarty got a makeover. So we'll talk about really what Microsoft has planned in how it's going to incorporate a new permanent addition. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Haslin. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. ["the Idiot's Guide"].
Speaker 1:So I think one of the things that I want to kind of start this episode out on is the fact that you know what better day to do this than if you look outside of our office and studio windows. We are dealing with probably one of the biggest snows of the season. To start off the season, we haven't really had anything, and that's typical. You know, usually about this time is when we really start getting snow and then it doesn't stop until July. So I mean, last year that's how it was, but this year hopefully it stops sooner than that. But I mean what I always notice is it doesn't.
Speaker 1:I mean it takes like a breeze and then everyone sucks at driving Usually honestly, at this point in time, like depending on the hour is literally what it is. It makes no difference whether it's you know right now, or if it's you know, or if it's a snowstorm, or if it's a sunny day. It everybody just sucks at driving and it's so infuriating that it's one of those things that they're like. I'm not an aggressive driver. Well, okay, let me say that I'm a confident driver.
Speaker 2:Clever word choice.
Speaker 1:But I don't have like the, I don't get. If I get, if I, I'll do a honk like a beep, beep kind of a thing. I don't lay on my horn and be like, ah, unless someone's about to die because I'm gonna hit them because they did something stupid. You know, like that's about the only time that I'm like letting them know move, this is not acceptable kind of a thing. But usually it's their fault. I mean, I say all that like I'm like this. I'm not an angel when it comes to driving okay.
Speaker 1:But you know, minus this halo, that's above my head in the prerecording setup, but I think that's you know.
Speaker 1:Like I'm going over these statistics, I'm checking them out, seeing what's going on and, honestly, like it's everywhere, like everywhere sucks and it's it's everywhere is bad, everywhere is infuriating, and you're gonna run into it and you're like, why? Like we can't, we can't go backwards when it comes to cars. We're only making more progress into things that, like, I'm, like I'm afraid of when they start introducing not only electric vehicles but, like autonomous vehicles. Because I mean, I heard an article the other day and they were talking about adding a new light to the traffic lights. That is, a digital, like relay signal that communicates with all of the autonomous vehicles simultaneously so that it knows traffic flow patterns and all the vehicles are communicating with each other. That's scary stuff, okay, like it scares the crap out of you when you're like you know, when you're sitting in a coffee shop and you're on an unsecured browser, everybody can see your stuff, and I'm like I don't want anybody looking at my stuff.
Speaker 1:You know like it's that kind of concept. My brain goes there and I'm like, what are they doing? Are they taking pictures of me while I'm driving? You know, like, anyway, it's all a device to control the world. People, don't worry, don't worry.
Speaker 2:Our AI overlords.
Speaker 1:And honestly, like it's headed in that direction. But at the end of the day, we're still left to ourselves operating vehicles. And you know, when you talk about somebody who's like, you ask them and he's like do you know how to drive manual? And most people don't. At this point there's. I mean you really have to search and know vehicles. I mean now there's push buttons, like I have a push button start, so that's fancy. I thought I was like woo-hoo, yeah, that's real fancy. No, my wife works with some doctors and they literally, when they're driving their cars, it is gear shift. It's like a manual, but it shifts gears with buttons, like a keyboard.
Speaker 2:Yep, so they used to be the flappy paddle gear boxes. So you have them behind the steering wheel. I've got that in my car. Mine's an automatic, but it does have the option to go into manual drive if I want to, and so I've got the flappy paddles.
Speaker 1:Flappy paddles.
Speaker 2:Flappy paddles.
Speaker 1:I like that term. That's actually like when it's in manufacturing. They're like don't forget the flappy paddles.
Speaker 2:So I can't take credit for that term. That comes from Top Gear and the Grand Tour. That's a Jeremy Clarkson one right now Okay so. But no, the flappy paddles. But yeah, now they've got the. You know you're pushing the buttons, you don't do anything, you just hit them. So you don't. And even now, so when they started, with those flappy paddle gear boxes, it essentially starts the transition for you and then you finish the gear shift.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so that's how it works, and so it's a complicated gearbox, but essentially it's doing half the work for you, so you don't have to be as coordinated so hitting the clutch, moving it, hitting the right slot on the gearbox as you're doing it, keeping the gas right in the perfect spot, but it takes a lot.
Speaker 1:So, sir, because you were so aggressive with your flappy paddles, we have to replace your transmission. And because it has flappy paddles and it's intuitive in its design, we're talking about $85,000 for you to replace that flappy paddle transmission. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's crazy. I learned how to drive a manual. I had been driving for maybe a year and we had to. I can't remember all the details, but we were driving through Vegas and it was me and my mom and, I think, some of my siblings, and we were getting a rental car and leaving her truck with some relatives in Vegas, and so, because it was a rental, I couldn't drive it because I was only 17 at the time, and so I'd been like that, been driving maybe a year and I had to drive my mom's manual truck. This is the first time I'd ever driven manual, and this was in the streets of Vegas.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, that's terrible.
Speaker 2:So learning how to drive a manual on the streets of Vegas for the first time ever in a truck no less Trucks notoriously bad for getting that ratio right on the gas clutch and making sure it slots into the right spot but yeah, it was. That was my experience and, honestly, if I can learn how to do that on the streets of Vegas, anyone can learn how to drive a manual. It should be a required part of the driving test. I know automatics are easier. I have an automatic. It's easier. It is. But understanding the mechanics and the dynamic of how to shift and being able to, while you're driving, pay attention to the road in front of you, being able to pay attention to the road around you really, and being able to shift gears at high speed in all this going around that kind of multitasking is really important for drivers and should be a required part of it, because right now it's just too easy to get behind a wheel and off you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you learn not to pay attention.
Speaker 1:Well, with self-driving cars, why would you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's getting even worse. Self-driving cars I mean, I don't think we'll ever get to the point where self-driving cars are actually going to be self-driving. And it's not the technology, it's the idea of being able to monitor everything that's going on around you and be able to adapt to that.
Speaker 1:My car has sensor tech in it so that if I'm going down the highway, let's say, for example, I can set the cruise control, and when the cruise control goes, it won't. Let me set it above a certain speed limit, so I can't. I think it's like 90. So that's still sufficient. That's pretty good, but once it's at night I can't go above 90. And I want to go above 90, dang it.
Speaker 2:Why would you ever want to go above 90?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I have the status.
Speaker 2:The speed limit in most places. I know what it is for our state. Our state is insane. Highest speed anywhere. But the highest speed I've ever seen is 85. And that's on California roadways.
Speaker 1:We were visiting Denver over the holiday and right through the main city on I-25, interstate 25, it's 55 miles an hour and we're like what in the world is wrong with these people?
Speaker 2:There's just a bunch of grandmothers driving around.
Speaker 1:Nobody drove 55. Like if you did, people are flipping you off and like just ugh yeah it's the hardest thing, because I am an adherent to the rules.
Speaker 2:I follow the rules of the road.
Speaker 1:So our posted speed limit on our inner city is 70. You go 70.
Speaker 2:I go 70 miles an hour, my speed limit.
Speaker 1:My speedometer is You're going to get a badge for that. That's it like a winner.
Speaker 2:My speedometer and I've tested this. I drive by there a lot of the speed radars that tell you what your speed is. So I regularly check my speed because it can depend on the inflation of your tires there can be a lot of things so I actually check the speed of my vehicle against the radar machines to make sure that the speed I am going, based on my digital speedometer, is the speed that I am going on the freeway, so I'm off anywhere. It depends on the speed. I'm going from one to three miles an hour and so my speedometer will read, you know, 71 or 73. But I do know that I am going 70 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Well, on the complete opposite side of that, I pushed the limit a little bit and I saw a news broadcast one time a while back and they were interviewing a trooper and one of the troopers, like they were asking them like is there like a zone that you're watching for and most of them, if you're at 10 over, they're good. With 10 over, they're like yeah, that's fine. If you're at 11 over, now you're questionable. If you're at 13, you're going to get stopped. Yeah, so 12 over the speed limit means it's safe.
Speaker 2:No, no, it doesn't mean it's safe. It means that that's when you will not get pulled over. It's still breaking the law. You just will not be pulled over for it.
Speaker 1:Oh OK, so now it's confused.
Speaker 2:Now, the reason they say that is because, like I said, I check my speedometer and I make sure that my speedometer is exactly right. It's a digital speedometer and I've got you know it's the laser radars, and so I know what my speed is. I'm neurotic. No one's going to do that.
Speaker 1:And you're probably like one of those like left lane loafers that you know just hangs out in the left lane You're like everyone needs to be law by the way.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. I do not go into the left lane because the left lane is for people that are going over the speed limit.
Speaker 1:82 miles an hour and a 70.
Speaker 2:So I do not, unless I'm passing someone else. I have no other option. I do not get into that far left lane. Ok, because I understand the rules of the road. That's good, but everyone's speedometer is just a little bit different, so they can't. I mean, they try, they work really hard, manufacturers, to make sure that it is specific, but everything can change a speedometer and what the actual speed is.
Speaker 2:And so that's why, generally, they're not going to pull you over if it's, you know, less than 10 miles an hour. It's not permission to speed. It's just that there's so many variations with everything. There could be any number of reasons why you're passing, say, you're passing a truck and you're trying to get past the truck before you get to a one lane road. So they're going to give you a pass to go 10 miles an hour over because you're trying to be safer. This is something that I teach my kids. If the rules of the road say you have to go faster, you go faster. If it is for the safety of the other vehicles around you, such as passing a truck, there's a lot of reasons why you may need to go a little bit faster. Then you go faster. At the same time, you also need to go slower if the road says so.
Speaker 1:You're right, and I have some numbers that really actually kind of talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so when I go to California or if I'm in Denver, then I go over the speed limit. I try to avoid it Because 55 is dumb. Well, if I get up to a pack of people because I'm not the only one that's like this, fortunately there are other people like me and occasionally I'll find pockets of them on the road and that makes me happy because I'll get next to them or behind them. And now it's not me breaking the rules of the road. I'm going the speed limit but I'm behind them, so they're the ones that are causing the problem. So in my mind I'm saying oh, don't yell at me, it's this car that's causing me to go slow. There's power in numbers.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I'll try to find those pockets of people and I'll go the speed limit. But if there are no pockets of those people, then yeah, I'll go the prevailing road conditions, Because if everyone's going, say, 70 on a 55, and I try to go 55, I'm actually the dangerous one. I'm causing the danger by trying to follow the speed limit, and so in that condition it's okay. I have to speed Because otherwise I'm going to be a danger to other people on the road, and so it's all about making sure that you are not a danger.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how many other people? Let's say this. So, in 2019, and this is the most recent stats, basically, as far as license drivers, there were 228,679,719 licensed drivers and 299,267,114 registered vehicles in the United States. Now, of these drivers, they drove a total of 3,261,772,000,000 miles collectively over that year. Wow, now, that's just kind of drivers on the road. So when we talk about drivers, that's the number we're talking about. There's lots of them, 228 million of them. So men are slightly more likely to drive than women, and that's not a sexist thing, that's a stat. Yeah, 2019 to 2020, 94% of males US residents age 16 and older drove at least occasionally, whereas 93% of female residents did.
Speaker 2:So it's not like a like a chasm, You're like wow Jesus, we is 1%.
Speaker 1:We're talking about 228 million. That's a big number. Okay, the highest, the highest rated cause of accidents speed, yup. Speed related crashes cost Americans 40.4 billion each year. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's an expensive thing. Now, speeding isn't necessarily and I don't know the stats. You've got all the stats, but I'm going to assume that speeding is probably not the biggest cause of death in accidents and car accidents, that there's probably another one that's higher.
Speaker 1:Speeding continues to be the number one cited driver related factor in fatal highway crashes.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so I was wrong there.
Speaker 1:Now the third. I didn't. I didn't spot the second one, I was kind of skimming through this stuff. But the third one is for pedestrian fatalities. Basically is distracted. Yeah, so I would assume the second is within line with both of those speeding and under the influence. Yeah, so those are probably the two leading causes of fatalities. And then distraction obviously they've done the statistics, the show like distracted driving is an equivalent to having a case of beer, kind of a thing. So you know, and it's really terrible when you see like you're watching a driver going down the street, I mean I like today I saw this and I'm like what are you doing? Like guys, you know, with their phone, like they're almost recording while they're driving down the road, like either they're recording the road or they're recording themself, it doesn't matter at that point. Like don't be recording while you're operating a vehicle in a snowstorm.
Speaker 2:I was driving down the highway. This was maybe a year or two ago. I was driving down the highway so we're talking about 80 miles an hour speed and I passed a vehicle, so I guess maybe he was going less than 80. He had a what looked like an iPad, so it wasn't a phone, this was an actual iPad or, you know, like a Kindle or something like that.
Speaker 1:It was big.
Speaker 2:And he had it. He was looking down reading what looked like a book, cause I could see enough from where I was of what he was doing. I think it was like twilight time, so not necessarily nighttime, but it was dark enough that the illuminated screen showed me what he was looking at and it was below the steering wheel or kind of like three quarters of the way down the steering wheel, leaning up against it, and his both of his hands were on the iPad as he's looking down and reading at twilight, going probably 75 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:There's this I remember, like you know, the Pokemon Go stuff. Like you know that was that was a big issue for when it first came out there. Like you got to make this so that it like has a, like an intuitive part of the app it realizes this person is driving a vehicle, cause, when they're like I had to stop on the freeway to catch that one, I got to catch them. All you know, and and just just I mean, like I remember, I remember that, like for me, what one of the things that was kind of not related to Pokemon Go, thank God, but I would I would take my my phone and, like, if I was on road trips, I would take my phone and put it up on my dash In front, like like a heads up display so I could watch TV shows while I was driving down the highway. However, I have my eyes directly forward. I have a lot more visibility.
Speaker 2:I'm not reading something small, I am like that is something that I actually do and it is something that you know for certain people actually helps, and here's the reason why this is why it helps me. I suspect it's probably the same reason why it helps for you and I don't see this as distracted driving, Okay, Because you're not, you're not fiddling with it, You're not doing anything to it, You're just you're more listening to it than you are watching. And for me, when I'm driving down a stretch of road that has nothing around my mind wanders.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I am easily distracted to either think about something to you know, what should I be doing at work? You know the work project. I'm working out some Excel spreadsheet in my head, though the total number of things that I could be focused on.
Speaker 1:Especially if I don't have something I'm listening to.
Speaker 2:Exactly In my brain I, and that makes me more distracted from focusing on the road than having this little video up there that actually keeps my attention and keeps my attention on the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that actually is a big help for me to have something like that.
Speaker 1:So listener, if you need a car radio and and.
Speaker 1:I can't help you, but I suggest you to get some headphones and like listen through your phone. I don't care, whatever you do, like have something going, it's gonna help. I promise I listen to podcasts. So I listen to podcasts and recently I noticed this with I might service a Spotify and they allow you to do audio books. So now I have like an entire library waiting for me to listen to my audio books. It's so funny because I go over and I have an Audible account where I have some books that are there that I've purchased, not a sponsor.
Speaker 2:No, none of these, sorry. If you want, though, of course Nice.
Speaker 1:So I have both of those services, but Audible, obviously. They're always like, hey, subscribe and you can get all these books. Well, now I just go and I see like a recommendation from Audible and I go over to Spotify to see if it's there and I'm like, oh cool, it's within my plan, yes, I'll add it to my library. So now I have, like somewhere in the ballpark, like 200 hours of books to listen to, and they're really good books. So it's like it's everything Like and, honestly, the library is massive. If you want to go on an adventure or something like that, like some sort of fantasy book, it'll be there.
Speaker 2:It's all there. What I would recommend is try not to listen to something that you've never listened to before, never watched before, so because that can actually be more distracting, so if it's something that you've already seen before. So like, two years ago we did a big road trip down to South Carolina, we drove there and back and I watched the Harry Potter movies.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so that was enough content for the you know 30 hour drive there and the 30 hour drive back, but they were something I had seen before so I could see it in my head. I didn't have to watch the screen to see what was going on. I knew what was going on cause I'd seen them all before, and so that makes it a lot easier to prevent you from being distracted, but still not allowing your brain to be distracted by, I mean, a 30 hour drive. That's a massive drive, but that helps prevent your brain from wandering and getting distracted, not paying attention to the road.
Speaker 1:So one of the things is like when you're like, whether this is on the highway or even in inner city this stat was kind of surprising to me, but it was over 50% of the 5 million yearly car crashes in the United States they're caused by aggressive drivers. So that means, you know, speeding being the most prevalent contributed to the statistic. But you know, the aggressive driver part of it's just kind of saying like hey, you know, I'm mad. And there was another one that said I think I actually put it down here yeah, half of the drivers who were on the receiving end of aggressive behavior. So let's say somebody's riding a bumper or they're hand gesturing or yelling, honking their horn.
Speaker 1:Side note, there was a traffic jam at the intersection down the street from us right here and there was lights and it was because the school bus had stopped or something like that down the street and all the lights were like it gets really busy by about 2.30 at this light and so, like you're talking, lots of cars, every single stop, every single red light, and the cars were backing up into the intersection.
Speaker 1:None of the lights have changed, it's still a green light for them. So they're not technically having to, they're not even a yield yet. So they, they're still fine. And this car, two lanes over in the middle of the like, like center lane of everything, is laying on their horn at all the cars in front of them and like. The only reason why I noticed this is my wife and I were like at the same intersection and she was further up and she could see what was going on. She's like, yeah, the idiot in the center lane is the one who's honking their horn, because I could hear it and she could hear it, and so it was just kind of one of those like really, Because the cars weren't going into the intersection.
Speaker 1:No, they were. So it was. It was. There was a backup on the crossing, like so, going going across from in front of this car and this car was at the stoplight, the red light center lane, waiting to have their turn. Red light like honking, honking at the cars. They were backed up in the intersection, not clearing the intersection yet it was still a green light for them and this car was just going to town on their horn. I was like what are you guys doing? Wow, so anyway, that's just because I saw stupid happen.
Speaker 1:66% of traffic fatalities are caused by aggressive drivers. 37% of aggressive driving incidents involve a firearm. That's crazy, that's scary. It like it escalates to that level. But in this, half of the drivers who are on the receiving end of aggressive behavior, such as horn honking, roo gesture, tailgating admit to responding with aggressive behavior themselves and, honestly, like that's that's what sucks is? It's like you have these, these situations where somebody is just being a jerk on the road and, yeah, rightfully so like you're, you feel justified and you're like look fire with fire bud, and then, all of a sudden, you're like except that I had to run that red light to get to catch up to you because you made me so angry and I took out a minivan full of kids. You're like dang, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:And now there's a neurological reason why that happens, one little bit, why there's aggressive driving, but also why in so many cases do the recipients of that aggressive driving reciprocate? And part of that is it's just the protection mechanism, it's the you have a perceived threat and so you have a fight, flight or freeze response, and for a lot of people it's a fight response when you're in that situation. And so when you are perceived as being threatened, rather than running, rather than freezing, you respond with that.
Speaker 1:Well, you have a giant rolling pile of metal that you're behind, so you have some extra confidence in you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the same in any situation. That's what you're going to respond with and it's perfectly normal, not great, not ideal, obviously, but that is normal and the ideal is to not respond that way, and so you have to learn coping mechanisms, other things like that, to help you not respond that way.
Speaker 2:And so it's not necessarily your fault. I mean, if you're on the receiving end of a horrible driver, that's going to be your first response. Is you are going to want to protect yourself? Or if you've got your kids in the car, you're going to want to protect your kids, and so you are going to respond in that aggressive manner back to them, because that's what we as creatures inherently do. That's normal.
Speaker 2:But in order to be better than that, we should not respond that way. Now, are we gonna do that 100% of the time? Absolutely not, and hopefully the person in the other vehicle doesn't one of those 37% or whatever it was that has a firearm. But that's why we respond that way. And for aggressive drivers, it may have been that they got cut off two miles back the road and so now they're aggressive because someone was aggressive to them, and so now they're just responding to every other person on the road, assuming and again, there's a lot of math that goes into this on the way that the brain algorithm works but they now assume every other person on their road is an aggressive person.
Speaker 2:Oh, they are Because their last person was, they are, and so now they are responding to every potential person as an aggressive driver.
Speaker 1:Not necessarily, but now you're an aggressive driver. It's basically just perpetuates that one Exactly.
Speaker 2:It is perpetuating and continuing that behavior until we put a stop to it. But again, this is all normal behavior If we're not in a two ton death machine, not too big of an issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But the issue comes in is because we're in a two ton death machine and we need to recognize that.
Speaker 1:I wonder why that's not in a sales slogan. Uh, your next two ton death machine today. Yeah, I'm such and such, carl Carlot.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's as great a sales pitch as some of the other ones.
Speaker 1:It's honest, and honesty doesn't sell.
Speaker 2:An honest car salesman. Do they exist?
Speaker 1:That's an ox Sorry.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and so that's that's why it is. And so we've just got to be extra careful when we're in two ton death machines that we go above and beyond to not act that way Because, again, it is normal Outside of a vehicle. It's normal. This is the way we behave. We are protecting ourselves, we're protecting our family from aggressive behavior In a vehicle. We need to make sure we have extra coping mechanisms to not do that, because we're in a two ton death machine and you're probably not going to hurt the person that's being aggressive to you. You're going to hurt that minivan driver with the two kids in the back seat. That had nothing to do with what was going on.
Speaker 1:You know, I think one of the things that kind of aggravates the situation typically and it, like I was saying at the beginning, is like it can just take a breeze to make this possible, but any inclement weather and you know I looked at some of the stats it was talking about like 70% of the nation's drivers are in a region where there's snow involved, snow and icy roads, and so you're pretty guaranteed around here to have to maneuver in that. So how come all the California drivers go to those places? Why, what's wrong with them? You can spot them a mile away and then you're going to catch up to them real quick because they're going two Okay, they're not even going fast enough to get traction on the road.
Speaker 2:When I lived in Seattle, Seattle does not ever really get snow, but when I lived up there I think this was the winter of 2003, 2004. And when I was up there, there was a really massive snowstorm. If our listener is from Seattle and was there in 2003, they know what I'm talking about. But it was a massive snowstorm. Okay, for us it would be a mild snowstorm. So they maybe had I think it was maybe about an inch of snow up there. They just don't have the infrastructure for it. And when that happened, the entire world stopped.
Speaker 1:Oh, when it dusted in like Georgia and it like dusted and made the roads a little icy, like it shut down the function of the city Like everything's, like we quit. I don't even know what to do with myself.
Speaker 2:People got out of their cars and left their cars on the roads and they just walked the rest of the way I witnessed this Honestly.
Speaker 1:that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:And that was. I mean, maybe it was two inches of snow. I may be exaggerating with only an inch, but it really wasn't a lot of snow. Now, I'm from Southern California, so for me it was a ton of snow, so I get where they were coming from. But yeah, it was. It's just not something they're used to. And yeah, it is safer Leave the car and walk because you have no idea what you're doing.
Speaker 1:All right. So of the 228 million that you're talking about here, one study found that 18% of licensed American drivers would fail the knowledge test for a learner's permit if they had to retake it. Another study found that nearly 40% would fail it. The passing score for the knowledge test is usually an 80%. Yeah, and honestly, I would agree with probably the 40%, especially when you start getting out on the road and you're like I come up to a roundabout and I have the yield sign and the person I won't name their gender pulls up and stops to wave me into the roundabout. I'm like are you kidding me? No, go, you're gonna cause an accident. Yes, no, what is wrong with you? It's happened twice in this state.
Speaker 2:The problem is courtesy, does not have a place on the road. I know everyone wants to be the nice person.
Speaker 1:Okay, now wait Someone, nope no.
Speaker 2:Courtesy does not have a place. The rules are there to define when people need to go.
Speaker 1:You know, like an on-ramp okay, an on-ramp here in Utah and I get this elsewhere. I think it's more confident courtesy elsewhere, but here it is entitlement. It means, oh, you're getting on the freeway and I'm trying to get on the same and I'm in that lane, I won't move over, I'm going to speed up so you can't come on the freeway and that's the zipper merge.
Speaker 2:they don't even know what that is and that's they don't even know how to spell it. That's the rules of the road. That's not courtesy. That is, the rules are there to you.
Speaker 1:Move in and this is actually you turn an indicator on. That does not mean make space behind you. It means make space for that person to come over.
Speaker 2:This is on the driver. Test is how to properly merge You're right that's why it's 40%. The rules of the road the laws are there to dictate how we drive. Courtesy has no place because usually when you're trying to be courteous, you're breaking the rules and that has no place on the road. The rules are there to keep everyone safe and they're designed to keep everyone safe. If you break those rules to be courteous, you are the most dangerous driver out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree, one of the things these stats and the things that I'm covering I'm going to add as links in the bottom of our show notes, basically. But just to kind of give you a rundown, ranked this was actually most recent, so this one's like within the last year was done, and I got it from Lending Tree. Basically, I don't know why Lending Tree did this, but it was cool. Rhode Island had the highest driving incident rate. So if you're ever in Rhode Island, plan for accidents. Two states had more than 30 accidents per 1,000 drivers. I think that's California and Rhode Island, I believe. Wow, california had 3.45 DUIs per 1,000 drivers. Speeding incident rates in Montana were significantly higher. Oh yeah, it's Montana, there's no one there.
Speaker 2:Even I might speed in Montana.
Speaker 1:North Dakota. This is your area ranked first for citations, and the only reason why I put those two together is because you have police force that are probably enforcing a lot stricter road laws, and that's why you have more citation rate.
Speaker 2:Well, if you think about it, in those areas not to interrupt you more, but in those areas you probably have a lot of cattle on the road, and so if you're speeding, it takes you a lot longer to slow down, and so if you're heading into a herd of cattle or someone driving their cattle down the side of the road and you've got an errant sheep or cow that comes across, you're not gonna be able to stop in time. So they've got to be really strict about that, so that you are not gonna. Potentially now there may be no one driving cattle on the road that day, but it's to make sure that as you're going through there, you don't run the risk.
Speaker 1:I love the justification. It's great, it's just fantastic.
Speaker 2:I've driven through these small towns. They do run their sheep along the side of the roads.
Speaker 1:That's how they get around out there. I get it, I get it All right. So last little bit of information I decided I would take a test, and it's a practice test, so it's not the real deal, but I did pass. I got 21 out of 25. And the ones that I did, I answered at least two of those. I just didn't read the whole question because it was like one of the, the option was all of the above and I didn't. I didn't, I was like this one, boom. I was. You know, I should have paid attention.
Speaker 2:That's. That was my when I got seas in school. You know I was like, but like.
Speaker 1:the reality is. This is, guys, we can all do a little bit better. Honestly, go do a search online on your smartphone and find a device, and find a test and take it. See what you? Well, you don't know Guess what. If you didn't answer the question correctly, it doesn't say you're wrong, do it again. It says, well, that was a wrong answer and here's the correct answer and here's why this is the correct answer and you can learn something about. You know whether you read the whole question or whether you actually didn't know the answer to that one. There was a couple that I was like huh, I didn't think that you know.
Speaker 2:The more you know, the safer you will be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I might even go the speed limit permanently.
Speaker 2:Hey, that would be nice. I remember an old comic the Born Loser, I think was the name of the comic strip, and the three panels. It was a Sunday comic. The three panels showed him yelling at another car that was going slow, and then the shows him sitting there. In the next panel it says he shouldn't be driving the speed limit anyway. So you know, he's yelling at someone driving the speed limit. So yeah, I think about that every time I'm talking about this stuff.
Speaker 1:So you know, as we learn how to drive and also operate a lot of it, you know we talked about distracted driving and things like that. One of the things that we're headed in the direction of is, oh, and this is like back in the olden days sort of thing the last time that a keyboard was ever redesigned or re reimagined was 1994. So that was 30 years ago that that we had any sort of addition Other than, like I would say, like Apple like added their theirs, but honestly, like that was the last time that they had the windows button added to the Microsoft keyboards. And since then Microsoft has really pushed, especially over the last year, really pushed AI tech. Their AI tech has been, you know, and it's not actually the last few years or the last year, it's been years and years. I mean they had Cortana. I remember when I got my laptop and I and I opened that thing up and it's like this thing started talking to me. I was like shut up, ew. No, what are you? Ew, I'm a Google.
Speaker 2:You know, like I hate all of those things.
Speaker 1:But you can while you're driving down the road, if you have an Apple, you can ask Siri to send a text message or make a phone call.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's free. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:You're like call this, call 911. You're like no no, stop, stop. But or you know like, you can ask Google to send a text message and you're like you know you don't want to read that text message. It's worse than predictive texts Like our auto fill. Whatever it is, it's terrible.
Speaker 2:Our AI overlords are no good at sending text messages, that's where we're saved. So when, when our AI overlords take over the world and we run our rebellion, text messages are the way that we're going to be able to send secret messages that they will never be able to figure out.
Speaker 1:So where this button is going to be placed is somewhere around the arrow buttons, the all four arrows.
Speaker 1:No kind of where the control the other side control button is right there, because nobody ever uses that control button. I hate that, but I use that control button. I don't know if they're going to get rid of it or if they're just going to place another button there. You know, like on my other side I have quite a few buttons. I don't know why I have some buttons, but I do and so I'm like I had to get used to that because the commands that you would normally do on my PC don't work, because I pushed the wrong button and I was like ah, it's the one next to it, yeah, okay. So for me I'm like well, just adding another one is just, you know, I won't think about it. I'll think about it for like a minute and then I'll remember, and then from then on, what this button is is.
Speaker 1:Basically, it is the activation of something called Microsoft Copilot. It is an AI, intuitive program that they have incorporated into everything similar to Cortana, except that you know it doesn't talk, thank God. But but at the same time, like if you're wanting it to do something alongside your function or your operation, what you're doing there, it is just that button, and I don't. They don't even have a design idea for it yet this is just within the next year will be initiated and expected on all of their devices. So if you're in the market for a new PC and it carries Microsoft which everything on Earth carries Microsoft, of course so you're going to see this Copilot button show up, and it is their form of forcing you to like Microsoft AI, which isn't, you know, all the AI options out there and, honestly, isn't the best AI options out there.
Speaker 1:But they've always pushed this. This has been their mission since they started incorporating something like this way back when. So now they're like finally, we should just probably, you know, create a button for it so that you can cue it instead of talk to it, and that way, you know, it's easier. I don't know, I don't, honestly, I don't know, but it's here. It's here to stay Microsoft. It will make it a mission for you to be familiar with it, love it, like it and accept it when it takes over.
Speaker 1:Yeah no, all right guys, we have reached the end of our show. I want to just add the normal flair. But also the other part of this is life's too short. Slow down, be safe, don't get mad at other drivers. They're idiots, but so are you, so am I, so is Joe. Yeah, keep laughing, keep learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.