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from the probably-painted-bright-orange dept.
Germany is planning to require "black boxes" in autonomous and semi-autonomous cars:
Germany plans new legislation to require manufacturers of cars equipped with an autopilot function to install a black box to help determine responsibility in the event of an accident, transport ministry sources told Reuters on Monday. The fatal crash of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S car in its Autopilot mode has increased the pressure on industry executives and regulators to ensure that automated driving technology can be deployed safely.
Under the proposal from Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, drivers will not have to pay attention to traffic or concentrate on steering, but must remain seated at the wheel so they can intervene in the event of an emergency. Manufacturers will also be required to install a black box that records when the autopilot system was active, when the driver drove and when the system requested that the driver take over, according to the proposals. The draft is due to be sent to other ministries for approval this summer, a transport ministry spokesman said.
Look for the kill switch next. Also at Ars Technica.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday July 20 2016, @03:01AM
All the large passenger jets have had black boxes for decades. In light of the 9-11 attacks, why aren't there kill switches in them?
The French government has a smartphone app with which it warned people to take cover from the Bastille Day killer. The warning went out nearly three hours after the attack began. Imagine what they could have accomplished if they had a kill switch.
http://www.itworld.com/article/3095975/in-nice-attack-governments-official-terror-alert-comes-too-late.html [itworld.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2016, @03:38AM
Not many people want to officially be known as the person who used the kill switch on an airliner with lots of passengers.
And not many people want to be in airliners with kill-switches controlled by people outside the plane.
So if there are kill switches in passenger jets they sure aren't going to be official.
The warning went out nearly three hours after the attack began. Imagine what they could have accomplished if they had a kill switch.
Yeah. They might have been able to turn off a vehicle 3 hours AFTER the guy started killing people... If they're lucky they might even pick the right vehicle ;).
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 20 2016, @03:53AM
The difference is that not many people can invade the cockpit, and not many pilots go crazy and crash into a mountain, and a killswitch that simply slows the plane down (as would be the case with car/truck kill switches) doesn't make a lot of sense.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Wednesday July 20 2016, @04:28AM
Slow down an aircraft enough and it will stall. That's an effective kill. Slow down a car or truck enough and the criminals can exit to do more mayhem. Building up speed, then suddenly locking the front wheels or steering sharply, could succeed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Wootery on Wednesday July 20 2016, @11:51AM
In light of the 9-11 attacks, why aren't there kill switches in them?
You really think adding a 'feature' that enables the quick and efficient killing of an airliner full of passengers will improve safety from terrorism?
You don't see any way this could backfire?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 20 2016, @01:20PM
Governments already have kill switches for passenger jets. They're called F-14's.
Washington DC delenda est.