If I am driving on a road, and a flying saucer with a spotlight is hovering ahead waiting to land, do I have to stop in the roadway and yield to them? Or do they have to yield to cars in the road? I checked my states driving manual and they don’t mention alien air/spacecraft at all.
I would guess that the UFO would have the right of way, as traffic would have to eventually stop for them anyways. Should I just stop in the roadway and put my hazards on so the flying saucer pilot is aware I am yielding the right of way to them?
I know it’s a joke question but here’s a serious answer:
I would treat it same as any other aircraft landing on the roadway. Give them space to do their thing because objects of greater potential energy ALWAYS have right of way, regardless of what liability laws say. Can’t sue ‘em if you’re dead.
As for laws, a quick search didn’t find anything in Federal or Alabama law about it except that the FAA here in the US says pilots consider it only as a last resort option due to safety concerns. If figure it’s probably not a common enough occurrence for laws to be made about it. Other states or counties may have something about it though.
Depending on the roadway, it’s super dangerous. Telephone and power lines are hard to see, deadly hazards for aircraft in that situation. If something is landing on a road, it’s probably an extreme emergency, and it’s best to give them as much room as possible.
I would imagine that legally, liability largely falls on the plane operator, though if you as a driver can avoid it, you would share in liability, perhaps moreso.
- Avoid things
- Then go by right-of-way
Sort of how you approach 3/4-way stop signs (god I hate them).
In my profession (trucking) the only thing that matters is preventable/nonpreventable. Liability is something for the insurance company to worry about (mostly).
This might be an interesting topic to suggest to Mike Rafi or Legal Eagle though.
But does the law give any rights to non human sentient extraterrestrial beings? If they are not a legal entity of any sort, this could lead to some interesting results.
Let’s say you ram into their ship, could anyone sue anyone? What if they evaporate your car with a doom laser cannon? Maybe that’s sort of like crashing your car into a rock, as far as blame is concerned.
A few general traffic laws apply:
1: The UFO is not a legally registered road vehicle and they must yield to all traffic.
2: If you see a hazardous situation, like the UFO not clearly following traffic laws giving you space, you must do your part to avoid injury by avoiding a collision.
So after you do brake for the UFO, or swerve and honk, you may go to the police and inform them of the aliens’ traffic violation. They may then get a fine.
If you say “fuck it Im in the right” and crash into them, you are both breaking the law, but you are in bigger trouble for willfully endangering life and property. You get prison, the aliens get a fine.
But don’t brake violently, there might be other cars behind you.
This is the type of information those classified air force documents are full of.
Your last sentence is the answer. Your driving manual probably says “drivers must yield to other vehicles occupying a lane”, which in your example would be a UFO.
The UFO is in the air in this case, preparing to make a vertical landing on the roadway
There’s a whole other section on defensive driving, I’m certain of it.
In this case, you’d be expected to exercise reasonable judgement on whether this UFO may be developing into a hazard. Four-ways on, and pull to the side of the road if it’s safe to do so.
In my state, defensive driving is optional (unless you get enough tickets/points that the course is mandated).
In my state
Is it the state of Chaos?
Speaking as a Voxon who captains a Kerglyz KG-7 scout craft (with the boosted manifold), I feel like I can offer an interesting viewpoint.
If we hover before landing it is a sign that we see you and are yelding to you, you can just pass under us, but please, to make it clear that you understand the situation and to alert us if we have strayed into your path inadvertetly, just flash your highbeams twice, indicating that you see us and intend to pass.
We are normally just doing surveys and gathering data, we are doing our best to stay out of the way.
I flash high beams twice to indicate the other road user may pass. Could we clarify this point before someone gets into another interplanetary insurance kerfuffle?
Thank you for your concern, as it stands now that local way of interaction between vehicles is at odds with the current galactic standard as noted in Book 29 (transportation), Chapter 61 (optical communication), section 5 (visual spectrum), subsection 2 (visual specturm communication between space faring civilizations and non space faring civilizations)
I will preset your comment as a suggestion to the grand court, who may agree to publish a local exception in Book 12 (exceptions).
The first rule of the road is “right-of-way won’t help you when you’re dead”.
But it could help your family in civil court.
They’re already violating US airspace. I’m not going to yield to anything violating military borders within my home. It’ll have to vaporize or abduct me.
Alienphobe, go back to truth social
It’s probably best if a driver yields to a flying saucer.
Give up your right-of-way when it will help prevent collisions.
When entering traffic, you must proceed with caution and yield to the traffic already occupying the lanes.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/california-driver-handbook/laws-and-rules-of-the-road/
Makes sense. I think if there are no cars behind you, stopping and letting the saucer land is the best way to go
It doesn’t matter if anything is behind you or not: any other road users would also be obligated to give up their right of way (by stopping) if you chose to stop, if doing so would help prevent collisions.
if it drops down, reverses direction and increases speed, then you’d better run.
If its hovering above the lane and you can drive under it without crashing and it seems like it isn’t going to land or inte ding to land, there is no law requiring you to yield but I personally would try to switch lanes and not be directly underneath it.
If it seems like it is going to land, I would yield to it same as a plane landing on a highway, but usually highway police are there to start a traffic break after being radiod by local ATC anyway.
There is no need to put on your hazards, they can see that you have stopped. If they can’t, then it doesn’t matter since they can’t see you.
I would honestly recommend trying to leave the area as quickly and safely as you can, because if it isn’t hostile already, it will be when the army arrives.
so, Just for the record.
They’re bigger than you are. This is like those tiny subcompacts that try to keep a giant truck from entering their lane.
Sure, you’re in the right. Still dumb to not let them in.
Incidentally, however, it’s important to note that things hovering in the sky will likely be pushed out of the way instead of the otherway around. All those helicopter’s blocking cars? a kid could push it out of the way. (it just has alot of inertia, but it’s got nothing keeping it from moving.)
Only if they are also illegal, transgender, dog-eating, convicts.
One incidental purpose of the Interstate Highway System is as emergency landing strips. But a VTOL craft should be able to make use of even the roughest roadways in the event of an emergency. Activate your hazards to alert the craft and any surrounding drivers of extraordinary circumstances.
Be prepared to render aid as necessary.
UFO’s are allowed to use roads in non-emergency situations as well. They land on low traffic roads and then quickly exit off the side of the road. Something about the way ufo’s are built, its actually safer for them to land on hard pavement and then transfer to grass then it is for them to land on grass directly.
I think the reason the UFO road sharing laws are so unclear is because they are so new and already changing a lot. For example, some cities have banned UFO road landings and some states have built helipads specifically for UFOs, eliminating the need for road landing. However, I have seen one ufo trying to make a road landing while I was driving before. I just kind’ve pulled to the shoulder and waited as I wasn’t sure what the rules were.
How can you distinguish between native and alien UFOs? Once you’ve identified where it is from, is it still a UFO?
You should yield to them, for the same reason a fly yields to a human hand trying to turn them into goo.
The UFO could be issued a citation for taking an unauthorized vehicle on a public roadway, which would give you a very strong case to have them pay for any damages to your car in the event of a collision.
However, if you don’t have full coverage, or uninsured motorist coverage at least, you will be in for a battle with your insurance company when they can’t track down the other driver (pilot?).
As always, defensive driving is your best bet. Avoid the collision and none of the other details matter.
The math might change if it’s one of those anal probe aliens, though. No judgement if that’s your thing, but I also won’t blame anyone for avoiding that situation even if it costs them a few out of pocket repairs.
The UFO could be issued a citation for taking an unauthorized vehicle on a public roadway
It’s not that simple though. UFO’s are allowed to land on public roadways if they do so safely (on a low traffic road, not blocking multiple lanes, exits the roadway quickly after landing).
