What is the point of a self-driving system where you need to stay attentive behind the wheel?
The physical act of turning a wheel isn't the hard part of driving. Paying attention is.
The physical act of turning a wheel isn't the hard part of driving. Paying attention is.
As an avid user of Tesla Autopilot I'll disagree with this. On a long road trip, monitoring my surroundings and making sure everything is generally ok is far less fatiguing than making constant microadjustments to steering, speed and following distance.
Even while paying close attention to the ride, long trips (especially in stop-and-go traffic) become significantly less stressful and exhausting.
Adaptive cruise control and lane assist, available in every modern car under the sun will make microadjustments to steering, speed, and following distance all day long.
What exactly does autopilot bring to the table?
(Update: to be clear, I’m not inherently opposed to a car changing lanes if I need it to, but it seems easier to deal with a potential emergency, and easier to persuade myself to pay more attention, if I know definitively it won’t do something that sophisticated.)
It’s whether you actually are - and that’s very different from what you perceive. For example i would be curious to see how eye movement of regular autopilot users differs when they are using autopilot vs when they aren’t.
Based on all prior studies of attentiveness I suspect you’d find dramatic reduction in active scanning, etc.
Part of the reason for the many curves in I280 in the sf peninsula was apparently to ensure drivers had to actually do something while driving. I’m tempted to investigate whether that’s a myth or fact, but the nature of the internet means I’ll probably just find that i280 gave me cancer :)
Car and Driver tested AEB in several vehicles (Tesla, Toyota, Subaru) and they are all pretty equally bad at it. Figuring out if matter in front of you, while traveling at speed, poses a life critical hazard is hard! It’s better than no AEB, but don’t rely on it entirely or you’re going to end up maimed or dead. As the driver, you are still the final responsible party.
https://twitter.com/vogon/status/1169358625220882432
Visual indicator after 2 minutes of no detected driver-applied torque to the steering wheel (apparently because they only detect torque - i.e. turning/steering motions - and not pressure?)
The safety system is robust IMHO. If I push the accelerator pedal while autopilot is running, immediate nag. Running at 89 mph (max speed before Autopilot locks you out for the duration of the drive due to too high of a speed)? Nags every 5-10 seconds.
It’s not perfect by any means, but it also expects a responsible, aware driver behind the wheel.
Since January 2018 there have been software updates that reduce the time that the car will allow you to not signal to it that you are paying attention. You now have to apply a little turning force to the wheel much more often than before.