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Would you also accept though, that you need to learn how to use autonomous features? Adaptive cruise is fantastic, as is Traffic Jam, but it's worth taking the time to learn how they work, so that you use them as an aid, not just an excuse to switch one's brain off. In the incident above, the system could have been defeated in less than a second by touching the throttle to indicate the driver was in control.
Autonomous braking is designed to mitigate an impact, so if it is applied for any reason and someone rear ends you, put simply, they were too close. They should have left enough room for the car in front to brake. Autonomous braking is no more effective that the foot brake.
Full autonomy will come. Suggesting sub standard sensors and penny pinching is a problem is IMHO something of a red herring. I remember the same arguments when ABS became standard, with people buying old spec vehicles because they could not or would not see the safety benefits of it and considered it just another thing to go wrong. According to NCAP, the AEB package costs about £80 to add to a typical car.
The Arizona accident - I assume your are discussing when the Uber XC90 hit a pedestrian was caused by the software recognising the hazard, but deciding not to act. That's poor programming without doubt, but the price of the sensors was not the issue. The LIDAR manufacturer issued a statement to the effect that the sensor would not have been able to map the road correctly if it had been faulty and without any doubt had "seen" the hazard. It was the software that sadly decided not to act.
Machine learning and swarm AI will make autonomous vehicles learn and share those experiences very quickly. It will never be a perfect system, but I think very quickly you will see true driverless vehicles. Ford, Volvo, Mercedes and a number of other mass market manufacturers have committed to them and they will drive the change. I firmly believe that within 5 years driverless cars will be in production and will have a better safety record than driven vehicles. |
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