• FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      And how does the phone know if you just take left turns faster? How does it know if you’re in the left or right lane? It has no way of knowing what the forces are, or if that variation is caused by something else.

      Your phone has no idea which side of the car it’s on, and insurance companies and their apps really don’t care.

    • ShepherdPie
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      5 months ago

      How do centrifugal forces determine which seat you’re sitting in inside of a car? Everyone in the car is going to be experiencing the same forces.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        He is correct that the forces are different. The equation for centripetal force is Fc = Mv2/R.

        Radius is the distance from the focal point, and each seat will be different distances.

        So he is technically correct that seat position could be calculated in perfect conditions with accurate measurements.

        But none of the data that reaches this service will be remotely accurate or complete enough to make that determination. It will only have one passengers phone data, and even if it collected everyones phone data, phone sensors have a margin of error well above what the difference would be. GPS data is only even marginally accurate up to something like 6ft, and really not even then. Then cars have a lot of other factors like suspension and compression in seats, etc, that would absorb enough of the forces to muddy the data even if accurate sensors were everywhere.

        Tl;dr; another cocky person that took a few physics courses but walked away with a poor understanding of real world applications talking out their ass.

        • ShepherdPie
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          5 months ago

          I actually don’t. Can you describe how sitting in a vehicle driving forward mimics the force of a record spinning in a circle?