On the way to the Philly Alliance Regional in 2000, I was driving a Suburban full of my team mates, one of the engineers was sitting shotgun navagation. If you've ever come at Philly from the south, you take I-76 into the city, as we were this day. Between 6:30am and 7:30am is rush-hour, and it was currently about 6:50am.
Ahead of me was gridlocked, so I stopped with a comfortable space between me and the van infront of me. The group I hauled that day tends to listen to loud music... who doesn't when they are surrounded by a bunch of teenage robotics members?? Let's just say that it the music was so loud I Couldn't hear the screaching of the tires behind me, and the base was so heavy that I didn't feel the bump, either. The gridlock cleared up, and I began to pull away when the engineer next to me said, "Hold on a minute, Jake, I think we've just been in an accident."
So I stopped, put the 4-way flashers on, and got out to see what was going on. Sure enough, there was a little compact car that had been sandwiched between my Suburban and a Mini-Van. To my dismay, the occupants of the Mini-Van were all members of my team.
If you were in that traffic jam (and I know some people were, 'cause we were asked if we saw the horrible traffic on the way in), I am sorry for the poor driving of some of the members of my team. Thankfully, driving a robot is much different than driving a car.
