Preliminary Ruling on Automatic Door Distrust
A subject decelerates before an automatic door to verify that the door has registered their approach.
Classification Notice
Subject behavior: Automatic door distrust.
Description: The subject, upon approaching an automatic door at a standard walking pace, decelerates to a pace well below standard in order to observe whether the door sensor has detected the approach and initiated the opening sequence.
The door was already opening.
Nature of the Distrust
The automatic door is a system designed to remove one friction from pedestrian transit. It detects approach. It opens. It closes after passage. No user input is required or requested.
The subject, arriving at the door, does not trust this account.
The subject does not distrust it openly. No complaint is made. No service request is filed. The subject simply slows, watches, and waits for the door to demonstrate competence before committing to the approach.
The door demonstrates competence. It was always going to. The subject, now satisfied, walks through.
Governing Rule
A public system may be manually verified whenever waiting feels socially exposed.
The automatic door has never failed this subject. The subject has no evidence of prior failure. The verification is performed regardless, because the alternative, walking toward a door that might not open, is a risk the subject has decided cannot be absorbed without monitoring.
Observed Sequence
- Subject approaches door at normal walking pace.
- Subject perceives proximity to door.
- Subject reduces pace significantly.
- Subject observes door sensor area for confirmation.
- Door, which has been tracking approach since step 1, opens.
- Subject, now reassured, resumes normal pace.
- Subject walks through.
Total added duration: approximately two seconds. Total added certainty: approximately zero.
Downstream Effects
Nearby strangers, observing the deceleration, sometimes mirror it. They have no reason to distrust the door. They distrust it anyway, because an approaching stranger's caution reads as local knowledge.
The door continues opening for everyone.
Status
The behavior is classified as ongoing. No remediation is possible. The door has no mechanism for communicating its reliability to subjects who have already decided to verify it independently.