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posted by janrinok on Sunday August 09 2015, @06:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the do-you-remember-your-stopping-distances? dept.

Einstein once said, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."

So 5-8 seconds seems like a (relatively) short amount of time. But, is it enough to safely take back control of a self-driving car and negotiate a road hazard? And if the driver is given less time, is it better or worse? Researchers at Stanford attempted to find out:

In this study, we observed how participants (N=27) in a driving simulator performed after they were subjected to an emergency loss of automation. We tested three transition time conditions, with an unstructured transition of vehicle control occurring 2 seconds, 5 seconds, or 8 seconds before the participants encountered a road hazard that required the drivers' intervention.

Few drivers in the 2 second condition were able to safely negotiate the road hazard situation, while the majority of drivers in 5 or 8 second conditions were able to navigate the hazard safely.

Although the participants in the current study were not performing secondary tasks while the car was driving, the 2 second condition appeared to be insufficient. The participants did not perform well and liked the car less. Additionally, participants' comfort in the car was also lower in the 2 second condition. Hence, it is recommended to give warnings or relinquish control more than 2 seconds in advance. While not necessarily the minimum required time, 5 second condition from a critical event appeared to be sufficient for drivers to perform the take over successfully and negotiate the problem. While the results of this study indicated that there was a minimum amount of time needed for transition of control, this was true when the drivers only monitored the car's activity and did not perform secondary tasks. It is possible that these results can change if the drivers are occupied with other activities.

Full research paper available here.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 09 2015, @11:48PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 09 2015, @11:48PM (#220481) Journal

    If you need to monitor your self-driving car in case this happens, then you might as well be driving it yourself.

    There's some point to moderate automation. Cruise control works well, for example.

  • (Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday August 10 2015, @02:25AM

    by q.kontinuum (532) on Monday August 10 2015, @02:25AM (#220515) Journal

    Problem is, if you have to pay attention all the time, it is easier to drive yourself. Otherwise you will (or at least I would) inadvertently slack of, think of other things etc., and in that case even the 5 seconds were not realistic. So, I would second the point: Either driving is automated enough to contain a fail-safe, were the car pulls over and stops, giving the driver enough time to wake up. Or it isn't automated. It could still be assisted (distance guard, lane guard with vibrating effect if you accidentally leave your lane, speed limit warning, parking-aid, etc.). Cruise control is already dangerous in my opinion, since it will maintain the current speed even if the driver doses off. Responsibility would clearly rest with the driver all the time.

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    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 10 2015, @04:28AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 10 2015, @04:28AM (#220547) Journal

      Cruise control is already dangerous in my opinion, since it will maintain the current speed even if the driver doses off.

      So will the lack of cruise control. I don't see a significant drop in speed happening before the car and whatever it hits/lands on develops severe repair issues.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 10 2015, @02:26AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 10 2015, @02:26AM (#220516) Journal

    If you need to monitor your self-driving car in case this happens, then you might as well be driving it yourself.

    There's some point to moderate automation. Cruise control works well, for example.

    Until it doesn't work as expected [foxnews.com] or it's defective and you burn [jalopnik.com].

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    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday August 10 2015, @04:24AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 10 2015, @04:24AM (#220545) Journal
      What doesn't have those problems in a car? Classic examples are the brake and accelerator pedals.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Monday August 10 2015, @08:47AM

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday August 10 2015, @08:47AM (#220593) Journal
    Cruise control is useful, but there are fairly strict limits. Safety doesn't have a simple correlation automation. With no automation, your entire attention is focused on the task and you're pretty likely to handle unusual conditions. With full automation, you don't need any attention on the task and it's pretty safe.

    When you have a little bit of automation, like cruise control, it can mean that you've removed some things from your locus of attention but all of the safety-critical things are still there and get more of your attention. Now imagine cruise control taken a bit further, so it will also do lane tracking and keep you in lane. All that you need to do is steer when the road markings aren't clear or when there's an unexpected obstacle. Now steering is no longer part of your attention and so it takes a little while to bring it back into your awareness. The time when you actually need to be involved in the process is when you are least mentally prepared to be.

    Various forms of computer assistance in cars are likely to be a lot less safe than either a fully manual or a fully automatic vehicle.

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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday August 10 2015, @09:55AM

    by Nuke (3162) on Monday August 10 2015, @09:55AM (#220611)

    There's some point to moderate automation. Cruise control works well, for example.

    Personally, I've had a couple of close calls with cruise control.

    Whereas approaching, say a stationary queue of traffic ahead, I normally ease off the throttle and then brake to a comfortable and "perfect" stop without even thinking about it, practically by instinct, with cruise I find I need to think more consciously about when to knock it off, and did not get it comfortably right at first. Now, after those experiences, I knock off the cruise as soon as there is any sign of a possible need to slow ahead, including above a certain density of traffic, long before any need to brake appears. I wonder about other people using cruise though.

    I have heard stories about 1950's Cadillacs (the first with cruise control?), when cars had bench front seats, of drivers sitting sideways with legs up along the seat, back against the door, steering with their left hand. There is also a story in the UK of a guy who used to drive his Morris 8, which had a throttle that could be set, sitting on the roof, legs down through the open sunroof, steering with his feet. [Ref : "Signalman's Morning" by Adrian Vaughan].