E-Mode: Applying First Principles To A Complicated Law That Many Drivers Don’t Know Exists — Part 1

James explained that he was lucky. The first time he had been struck, he was 18 and had just started his company. It taught him to become hyper-aware of traffic. He started training and teaching his employees what to watch out for in traffic flow and how to survive while working the scene of a wreck or incident on the side of the road.

These protocols that James put in place saved his life a total of four times. But the problem now is how does oncoming traffic deal with these situations? Obviously, following the law is a must, but as the NHTSA said, 71% of drivers don’t know of these laws. This is where James applied Elon’s first-principles approach.

“Looking at the complications of these laws, it’s just so complicated that your brain will go crazy trying to read all of these laws. So I try to do what Elon does. What do we know about Elon? You take something really complicated and you simplify it into an undeniable truth. Stop making stuff, there’s no more stuff.”

Solving a Complicated Problem

The inconsistencies in the wording of the Move Over laws between states (because traffic laws must be passed by each individual state) have understandably led to confusion. 

For the past 10 years, James has pushed for a straightforward protocol based on physics. Simple, clear, and precise. However, there is very little incentive to change these laws, and when there is change, it’s usually to increase penalties.

Looking for a solution in Tesla’s AI, James came across the video where Elon explains using first principles for problem-solving. When James applied this first principles physics method, he found what Elon calls a “fundamental truth.”

James explained that there was consistency in cases where an emergency vehicle was hit. He has looked at several hundred struck-by incidents and it’s there.

He brought his findings to his friend, James D. Garcia, who had originally started the Move Over laws and has been a safety advocate at the Emergency Responders Safety Institute since 2002. 

He also helped get the Move Over laws written into Chapter 6. I-MUTCD 2002 Edition Federal Highway Administration. James told me that it didn’t take long for Mr. Garcia to realize that James’ findings using Elon’s first principles method had clearly ended a 25-year argumentative phase. Ending the “and/or” debate. This was a pivotal moment in the history of this 100-year-old problem

The debate was about these wordings:

• Move over or slow down
• Slow down or move over
• Move over and slow down  
• Slow down and move over
• And the variation in specific speed reduction

“Simple, and unarguable.”

James shared what he called an immutable universal fundamental truth: 

“People have hit and killed people with a vehicle by not moving over. People have hit and killed people with a vehicle by not slowing down. People have hit and killed people with a vehicle by not being prepared to stop. But, zero — not one single death — has occurred by a vehicle that slowed down, then moved over and was prepared to stop.

“‘Slow Down, Then Move over and be prepared to stop.’ If you cannot move into the next lane, you can still Slow Down, Then Move Over within your lane. If you have to stop to avoid a collision, then stop. All lanes are affected.”

James told me that on that night, they both agreed on the wording for the laws for humans. James went on to write the protocols for autonomous vehicles that surpass human behavior based on first principles, the laws of physics, and Asimov’s three laws to robotics, hence E-Mode!

“Mr. Garcia’s mission is now for uniformity and consistency of legislation wording. This will take time.”

What does this mean for Tesla? If Elon adopts E-Mode and programs Tesla with the respective behavior, the Tesla fleet surpasses the expectations of the current Move Over laws in every state and every province.

“E-Mode will be semi-automated where the driver easily triggers the respective sequence Right, Left, or All Stop.”

As for full automation E-Modes, James has not disclosed any information on that to protect the idea for Tesla.

“I can’t say much about it except that there’s more than meets the eye. It’s a mind-blowing aspect of the feature and that’ll be Elon’s job to announce that, not mine.”

Speaking of jobs, James told me that after Part Deux of this article, he’ll be applying at Tesla to be an ADAS Operator. He believes Tesla could be trained to “Wreckonize” these hazards within a year. This would set the example for all companies. 

“In ten years, struck by incidents could be a thing of the past”

Stay tuned for Part Deux: How Tesla is actively changing traffic behavior and how the Cybertruck could play a major role in reducing struck-by incidents, saving the government millions of dollars in the process. That’ll be coming in 2 weeks-ish, Elon time.