Pickle truck fire spears DeKalb commute, plus more from the traffic notebook

We traffic reporters try to find laughs in the middle of frustrating Atlanta traffic, and we sure encountered a big dill in DeKalb County on Tuesday.

A big rig carrying jars of pickles caught fire before 5 a.m. Oct. 13 on the Clairmont Road ramp to I-85 southbound in Brookhaven. The burned-out trailer collapsed and split open. At the height of the incident, DeKalb fire crews blocked two right lanes of I-85 southbound and the entire access road next to it.

Once they doused the fire and towed the truck’s cab away, they opened the through lanes of the freeway and the right lane of the ramp.

But a mess remained. The trailer was so damaged the cleanup crew had multiple excavators dismantling it and dumping the burned-out debris — and the precious pickles — into garbage bins and onto the back of wreckers. A number of jars broke, sending a stream of pickle brine down the access road and right past us as we reported from the scene.

The fire began just before I was going to use that very Clairmont ramp to go to work, and Brookhaven police made me turn around. On 11Alive, Rachel Cox-Rosen and I directed drivers to take Buford Highway or Briarcliff Road (the route I took) south to North Druid Hills Road for I-85 southbound access.

The third member of our traffic team, Stephen Boissy, also saw this conflagration on his way into the station.

Thankfully, DeKalb police confirmed the fire injured no one. The entire scene cleared about six hours later, making for a slightly sour commute for many.

More thoughts on autonomous cars

Last week’s column discussed Waymo’s claims that its self-driving vehicles are far safer than human drivers. The topic led to some insightful conversations about driving, including: whose rides are smoother?

Waymo’s and others’ safety studies are based on police reports. But who reports on their dad’s great or poor driving? Or their own? And how do Waymo, Tesla and other platforms assess smoothness?

I recently piloted a couple of cars with heavy driving-assistance features, namely collision-detection and lane-assist technology. When enabled, they take their jobs seriously. While driving a rental car last weekend, I noticed how suddenly the Hyundai Sonata braked when traffic slowed in front of it.

I have reached back out to Waymo to find out how it fine-tunes the user experience since that also is a key factor in how people judge them. I will report back here with my findings.

My wife is the best vehicle diagnostic test

Earlier this summer, I confessed about my procrastination with vehicle maintenance and how I left my lovely wife, Momo, holding the bag. I learned my lesson about waiting to address a dashboard warning light in a humbling and frustrating way — only to fall again.

Last week, I saw a warning about the low battery on the key fob. Our 2017 Ford Edge, “Edna” as you may remember her, was becoming a small pain again.

I waited a couple of days before ordering new batteries and had left for the NASCAR races in Charlotte last Thursday in the aforementioned rental car. Momo needed to make a rare trip in Edna and found the key fob totally dead. When she called, I told her to grab the backup fob until we could change the batteries. But the backup, being just as old but far less used than the other, was also dead.

Great.

Momo got to the hardware store, bought two new batteries, and the friendly Ace employee changed them. The batteries I ordered had arrived at our condo by the time she got home from the unexpected errand. Crow was my dinner option, yet again.

If your partner is the more organized person in your relationship, let them take your car for a spin. The vehicle will likely show them its flaws — and your better half will probably be the one to immediately fix them. That has been my experience, anyway.