591
better than half our interns (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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Twitter post from Moonlit Sentences Arizona DOT installed a wildlife camera at Route 87's pedestrian crossing outside Payson last September. Standard deer migration count. After six months, they had footage of zero deer and 147 clips of the same coyote pressing the crosswalk button with its paw at sunrise. The animal waits for the walk signal. Steps into the road. Crosses at a trot. Every single time. Biologists believe it learned by watching hikers at the adjacent trailhead. "It's not random," said the lead researcher. "That coyote understands cause and effect better than half our interns." DOT voted unanimously to keep the camera running. The coyote hasn't jaywalked once.
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[–] 162 points 3 months ago (11 children)

It’s very clearly an AI image to me. Just look at the road lines. A double solid yellow line on the right side of the road is not something that happens in the USA. The double yellow line would be in the center of the road. And if this was a divided highway with the coyote being in the center median, then the yellow line would be a single solid line.

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  • [–] 44 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    And what kind of pedestrian crossing looks like that?

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  • [–] 38 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    And why is there one in the middle of nowhere

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  • [–] 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    For the coyote

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I do believe I used to watch a documentary about a Coyote in the desert, and quite a bit of that involved it on a paved road as well. I do believe it understood more complicated things than just pressing crosswalk buttons, if I recall it flat out knew how to place orders from an Acme Catalog an assemble quite a few fairly complex machines.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago

    As someone who lived in the Mojave desert for nearly a decade, that part isn't that weird. Double yellow and weird spacing in the crosswalk are pretty obvious but a crosswalk that appears to be in the middle of nowhere is quite standard where I was at.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago

    Yellow lines always separate directions of travel. So yellow lines will only be down the middle of the road. White lines will be in between lanes travelling the same direction, and along the edges of the road.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    there is an intersection near me (east coast USA) with one lane on one side of 2 yellow lines and 3 lanes on the other side. It's definitely possible. It does have turning arrows, but those would be a bit out of view from this angle I think (they're kinda far back). The picture is still very implausible though because of the very uneven lane widths and the weird crosswalk paint. The closest lane looks like it could only fit half a car.

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