Ha, talk about burying the lede.
For anyone expressing a bit of righteousness about following distances, they simply aren’t practical for most urban driving (and some busy rural stretches like the I-5 through the Central Valley). If you leave enough space, someone will slip in that spot. Then you back off from that person, after which someone else slips in. It’s simply impossible. No one is at a safe distance and most of all no one will let you drive at a safe distance; you simply have to trust that everyone will behave in a predictable manner. And predictability is always key, I think that’s the factor that trumps all others. And that’s what the Tesla violated.
I’m not proud but I confess I tailgate when I’m in the left lane in a long line of cars passing and some jerk off decides the line isn’t going fast enough and zooms up to the slow vehicle in the right lane and tries to cut in (this is endemic to the aforementioned I-5 in the central valley). I’m working on not doing that anymore.
