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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 21 2017, @06:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-the-time-for-napping dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

As predicted by many (including posts here on SN), extensive testing now shows that if the driver's workload is reduced to near zero they are in no position to intervene should the autonomous system get in trouble.

The Detroit-based company has tried many ways to keep its engineers alert during autonomous car test runs, employing everything from alarm bells and lights to even putting a second engineer in the vehicle to monitor their counterpart. "No matter — the smooth ride was just too lulling and engineers struggled to maintain 'situational awareness,'" said Ford product development chief, Raj Nair.

Ford's strategy of eventually removing the steering wheel and pedals from self-driving cars has ignited a debate between automakers on how to approach the development of Level 3 self-driving vehicles, or if Level 3 should even exist at all.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi will introduce semi-autonomous Level 3 vehicles next year that require human intervention within 10 seconds or the vehicle will slow to a stop in its lane. However, other automakers like Nissan and Honda have upcoming systems that give the driver 30 seconds to prepare and re-engage the vehicle or it will pull to the side of the road.

The article continues with quotes from other manufacturers and US DOT. As a reminder, levels from 0 (no automation) through 5 have been defined by SAE. Level 3 is "conditional automation" and it's starting to look like this level is not such a good idea.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by theluggage on Tuesday February 21 2017, @10:35PM

    by theluggage (1797) on Tuesday February 21 2017, @10:35PM (#469910)

    This level, or its equivalent, works well and safely every day in aviation, but then you almost always have to demonstrate competence to perform aviation.

    That's true. Plus - I Am Not A Pilot, but in my ignorance I assume that following things don't happen much in planes:

    • A banker in a Learjet decides you're not going fast enough and flies 2 metres behind you as a prelude to overtaking you on a blind corner
    • A pedestrian staring at a mobile phone steps out from behind a cloud right in front of you, forcing an emergency stop
    • A lycra-clad lemming in a hang-glider, flying at night, with no lights, comes barrelling down the wrong side of the flight path
    • The plane in front slams on its brakes giving you 3 seconds to stop or swerve.

    Seriously - as I understand it, Air Traffic Control start filing incident reports if two planes pass within several hundred metres of each other. CF two lanes of opposing ground traffic a metre or so apart with closing velocities of more than 100mph...

    What does happen in a plane (...and we're talking airliners and general aviation here, not Top Gun) that needs a reaction within a second or two (esp. when the autopilot is likely to be engaged)? Turbulence?

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