Humans are simply not good at passing off 80-plus percent of a task and then staying alert to monitor what’s going on, which is what Autopilot demands. Since Level 2 systems offer no failover capability and need a human to be ready to take over at any moment, if you’re not paying constant attention, the wreck we see here is precisely the kind of worst-case nightmare that can happen.
It’s not just me saying this; experts have long known about how shitty people are at “vigilance tasks” like these for decades. Imagine having a chauffeur that had been driving you for hours, and then sees something on the road he doesn’t feel like dealing with, so, he jumps into the back seat and tells you it’s your job to handle it now.
You’d fire that chauffeur. And yet that’s exactly what Autopilot is doing here.
That article raised more questions than it answered. If the AP disengaged 40 seconds before impact why did the vehicle continue accelerating. Was the driver asleep with his foot on the throttle? I agree that an AP system should either work entirely or not at all as who wants to be as alert as an actual driver while relying on a questionable AP system.
Reminds me of “green energy”. Needs to have a conventional backup (in most cases) in case SHTF.
If you have to be that vigilant why not just drive? On the other hand, while not ready to turn the roads over to these things, I find the process kind of fascinating.
If I want someone as dumb as a post driving, I call Uber. Then again, they tend to fart, play bad music and stop in the middle of anywhere to drop you off…and then you get run over by a Tesla or another Uber driver.
I always walk facing traffic.
Once upon a time a squirrel – not riding a bicycle – ran across two lanes of oncoming traffic in front of me, reached the median, changed its mind then ran back ‘making’ some cunned stunt swerve and drive up over the curb and onto the sidewalk.
I had just barely jumped out of the way because I could ‘see’ it coming.
The driver sped off as I turned and approached them with evil intent.
The squirrel was flat.
That was over 37 years ago.
I still always walk facing traffic.
Buddy, stay away from squirrels (AKA:liberals)
It wasn’t the squirrel they were after.
Heck, too many humans aren’t even very good at passing off 5% of the driving task by engaging basic cruise control. And then there are the newer “active” cruise control systems that will maintain distance from the car ahead, and even engage the brakes if the car ahead is becoming too close, too fast. I’ve had that demo’d for me, and while I like the distance maintenance feature, the automatic braking just drove me nuts. The automatic system was always too slow to initiate braking, and even though I was the passenger, I was trying to stomp the brake pedal through the floor. And the system was often imperfect in its braking, so if you weren’t ready to do some really hard braking yourself, the automatic system would have run into the obstacle ahead.
Autonomous vehicles will only work well with dedicated roadways, and every vehicle communicates position and velocity with all the vehicles around it. Even then, the system won’t be foolproof.
I have that feature in my Lexus. I agree that it often starts braking too late for my comfort. I would suggest to the programmers that they add brake light recognition to the radar system.
I also find that after driving the Lexus I have to keep reminding myself to pay attention when driving my other car.
I kind of like that my car holds the lane for me, and the distance from the car in front of me, it does lower fatigue on a long drive, but I have to be ‘driving’ it at all times, it yells at me if my hand is off the wheel for more than 30 seconds. It will dodge off the road if an off ramp isn’t properly painted, for example. I have never, and would never use it anywhere but on a limited access highway, and I turn it off when there is any significant traffic, even then. I have never noticed any issues with automatic braking.
Sounds like my Lexus. No really ready for self driving.
When it comes to automation, complacency is responsible for more deaths than one can count. The field of aviation is working hard to reduce accidents from that very cause. It’s foolish to think the average driver – that suffers from all sorts of biases about their own ability and decisions – is immune to the false sense of security that technology provides.
This reminds me of the clown caught speeding in his Tesla in Alberta recently. The driver (and passenger) had their seats reclined and were caught traveling at 140 kph.
FWIW – our Mazda cruise control works very well and will brake when it senses something ahead. That said, I prefer to not use it in heavy traffic. I do appreciate the lane departure warnings.
I own a car that has some of these features. The driver needs to be constantly alert for failure. Better not to even engage the system at all and drive as though they are not available.
want to find out about autopilot watch a couple episodes of ‘Mayday’
especially the boeing 737
On my aircraft as on every aircraft with an autopilot, the red disconnect button is located below your thumb on the yoke. Further, the autopilot is never treated as anything except a helper to the pilot who is always in charge. In the few cases where it usurped too much of the pilot’s responsibilities, bad things eventually happened. (737 Max!)