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from the don't-forget-the-kill-switch dept.
Self-driving cars on Michigan's roads may not need human chaperones much longer. Or at least, there will be (tele)operators instead of drivers:
Michigan's Senate is considering a bill that would allow self-driving cars to be tested on public roads without a human driver inside the vehicle. However, a human would still be required to "promptly" take control of the vehicles movements.
Michigan is already a driving force when it comes to driver-less car technology and now the senate may green light a law taking it a step further. The state senate is expected act quickly on a package of bills to loosen rules governing autonomous vehicles. One would no longer require someone actually be inside a self-driving car while testing it on public roads. Right now, Michigan is home to 375 automotive research centers and houses the world's first controlled environment specifically designed to test the potential of the vehicles.
From Senate Bill 0995 (2016):
(4) Subsections (1), (2), and (3) do not apply to an individual who is using a device described in subsection (1) or (3) to do any of the following:
[...] (e) Operate or program the operation of an automated motor vehicle while testing OR OPERATING the automated motor vehicle
in compliance with section 665, if that automated motor vehicle displays a special plate issued under section 224(3) in the manner required under section 225.WITHOUT A HUMAN OPERATOR.[...] (b) An individual
is present in the vehicle while it is being operated on a highway or street of this state and that individualDESCRIBED IN SUBDIVISION (A) has the ability to monitor the vehicle's performance WHILE IT IS BEING OPERATED ON A HIGHWAY OR STREET IN THIS STATE and, if necessary, immediately take control of the vehicle's movements. IF THE INDIVIDUAL DOES NOT, OR IS UNABLE TO, TAKE CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE, THE VEHICLE SHALL BE CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING A MINIMAL RISK CONDITION.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by lentilla on Thursday September 08 2016, @02:42PM
The popular insistence that a human can take over "in an emergency" ignores reality - but allowing remote control of experimental vehicles is far more foolish.
How many of us; as passengers; have applied the phantom foot-brake when our driver attempts a questionable manoeuvre? The same dynamic can be applied to autonomous cars. If the car does something stupid, the co-operator hits the "STOP" button. Passengers and driving-instructors the world over have been doing this for a century. It's not perfect but it does work.
Expecting a surrogate driver to take control at a moment's notice won't work because it's human nature that a secondary driver "offlines" quickly. Expecting a remote control operator to do so is even worse - expecting them to respond adequately is a fantasy concocted only by those who place legal and insurance fictions over hard reality.
Reality and road experience suggests that if you foresee problems (as expected in early-era autonomous vehicles), you must:
None of this is markedly difference from teaching someone to drive. At least where I live, a dual-control feature is more-or-less limited to a second brake pedal - and if we suffer an occasional scratched bummer, we certainly don't experience continued fatalities.
Furthermore, humans (males, especially) have always engaged in risky behaviours for little pay. What not let people hoon around in autonomous cars for a salary equivalent to that of a taxi driver? Somebody will get paid for useful work - and that salary won't go to an insurance company. The risk; at least in historical terms; is almost negligible. It's a cheap, easy and rather risk-free opportunity to allow people the opportunity to progress our society.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday September 08 2016, @05:52PM
Automatic cars need a big display and two big physical buttons:
- A big display to show you what the car thinks the environment is: boxes showings other cars and distances in all direction, representations of identified signs and road hazards. make it a touchscreen so the user can draw a route manually if needed.
- A big physical orange button that says "watch out" when the user thinks the situation is dangerous and he is scared the car may not figure it out, or something important is missing on the big display (kids running between cars). Hit the button, the car enters an emergency awareness mode (and slows down) until the user agrees the warning.
- A Big Red STOP button, which will make the car stop ASAP in the safest way/place it can find.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday September 09 2016, @01:39AM
People don't pay attention to their driving as it is.
This would just add another display to ignore. You can't fix stupidity with a graphic display or panic button.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.