Tesla's Autopilot 'tricked' to operate without driver
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
If you want more danger, put a brick on the accelerator.
[1] https://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/cr-engine...
"I am guessing after hitting the tree the doors got jammed, so the driver got in the back seat to try to force open the back door or trunk access. They burned alive."*
This explains why front passenger was occupied (airbag and no hands to brace for impact - this person was probably was still in stock), the driver braced using steering and got in back seat to open doors, but the smoke/fire killed them both soon.
In the same way some medicines are regulated to stop people self medicating, perhaps cars need to be made less tempting to be stupid with...
For example, perhaps a $1000 deposit that you lose if you are ever found to not be paying attention at the wheel?
Drunk driving and not wearing a seatbelt became socially unacceptable after decades of horrific accidents (I recall a story of a drunk driver in Belgium plowing through an entire class of school children).
...or a $1000 fine?
> ...or a $1000 fine?
It's a great idea except the fact that it's unenforceable and will eventually be abused. Whether or not someone has been paying attention is a transient property you can't prove or disprove after the moment has passed.
https://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/cr-engine...
I mean, I guess this counts as "tricking" the car, but there's definitely a line somewhere at which point this becomes a Tesla-hating non-story. You could also put a brick on the accelerator in a normal car and crash yourself that way, but so what? Any safety system can be worked around by a sufficiently determined person.
This is like the basic thing of giving your users power over the product they purchased.
What next? All cars can be tricked into driving into other cars with merely some steering input? "Researchers concluded that with a mild flick of the wrist, any driver could flatten 40 children in a preschool yard. Activists have called for wrist flick regulation over the years but their appeals have been ignored by all manufacturers except Daewoo - whose cars do not respond to steering input at all"
Ah, the old days of buckling up back packs and fish tanks, and pretty much anything else I didn't want to throw in the back that weighed over 30 lbs.
If anyone is curious how to do it. From https://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/cr-engine.... Personally I wouldn't call it too easy to do; That summation makes me think it would be possible on a whim with no forethought (surely a wealth of the scenarios where someone would choose to do this), but looking at the picture in the article they needed a setup with a large weight (but not too large) tied around a length of rope (also something I don't have available on demand in my car and would have to go somewhere and buy).
I'm not saying a drunk idiot at home with some unusual materials couldn't do it but it's not as simple as something you can do anytime you feel like it.
On the topic of better systems to get the driver to look at the road: "By comparison, BMW, Ford, GM, Subaru, and others use camera-based systems that can track the movements of a driver’s eyes and/or head position to ensure that they’re looking at the road. Some vehicles—including those equipped with GM’s Super Cruise—can automatically slow to a stop if they detect that drivers have ignored repeated warnings to look at the road."
We shouldn't forget that there's a lot of prior art on this area of human-machine relations. One place where we've had automated driving for ages is in train/subway and getting their conductors to pay attention even when they don't have anything to do for hours on end is something that's been struggled with. I recall that they've tried things like adding a button that they have to press periodically, but it doesn't work (the brain still can't help falling asleep and it will automatically interact with the button). Same for other more advanced things like making them input some more complicated action to show they're awake. The brain's just too good at ignoring things it realizes aren't necessary. I think one of the best solutions, maybe the only solution that's been foolproof, is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling. Not sure how we would utilize that idea for self driving cars though.