It's probably worth noting that both times were in automatics. The scenario was: lift foot off brake ready to accelerate, car starts to creep forward, maneuver aborted due to cross traffic (possibly over-cautious), hit brakes...

In a manual car, the car would not even be moving unless the decision had been made to complete the pull-out.

Right turn on red is actually pretty nice though not appropriate in all situations.

Actually, you just reminded me. I did get rear-ended in the UK once. But the car was old, the rear-ending was light and we knew the people so it was just laughed off. Slightly different circumstances though.

Can confirm. Have lived in the US for a good while and the UK roads seemed scarily narrow last time I went back for a vacation. Especially the motorway.

Why should you have to be a citizen? You are aware that people can live in the US legally for long periods of time without becoming a citizen and that most states require you to obtain a local licence within 90 days of becoming a resident?

I agree that the US driving test is pathetic in many states (I'm originally from the UK and have taken car and bike tests in both locations) and accidents are likely somewhat more common here but it's not like this kind of thing never happens in the UK.

I've got too thick a skin to worry about that. But my point is not that the person in front bears any fault, my point is that there is more to the story than just assigning fault.

Can you understand that? Do I need to make it simpler? Do you realize that you and the other poster went off on a rant about something that I was not saying in the least? Even my daughter understood when she was four that it's no good assigning fault to someone else when you're lying in a pedestrian crossing bleeding out because you had right of way over that truck that was barreling down the highway towards the red light at 60mph.

'Here lies the body of William Jay
Who died maintaining his right of way -
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he's just as dead as if he were wrong.'

It's possible that the Google car is not giving out "body language" that telegraphs behavior before it happens. If you are about to slow down, you might move your head to check your mirrors, let off the gas a little bit, possibly maneuver in the lane, little things that humans could detect subconsciously. If the Google car just enters a slowing-down event, it might be undetectable.

I know as a motorcycle rider, I've suspected someone was about to do something stupid just before they did and it's saved me a few times.

It may not actually be the fault of the Google car per se but I think it definitely is worth considering that it might be driving in a way that would increase the number of accidents around it. I've certainly seen human drivers do so.

Heck, I have possibly even done so myself. Twice, I have been at a red light turning right, started to go and stopped, (having seen vehicles coming too quickly for me to pull out safely) and been rear ended by people who thought I was going. Clearly I was not at fault but that start-stop action was definitely a factor. Some people also drive in a way that might encourage others to take risky actions in order to get around them (driving below the speed limit, slowing down to read the street names at every intersection etc).

It's not as simple as assigning fault.

"that matters"

He just needs to add some indicator fluid.

They're all addicted to other peoples money, the lot of them.

This is largely because the government should not be getting into all this stuff anyway. Therefore you get the tension between what they need to do what they're doing and what they shouldn't be needing to ask for in the first place, leading to these half-arsed compromises.

Feeling old?

Unfortunately the motofone is dual band so you have to pick which you use. Most are of the European frequencies but US frequency models are available from what I've seen. I bought mine while I was visiting the UK and was hoping it would be quad band. I still keep it around for the occasional visit.