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Programming Safety Into Self-Driving Cars

Posted by timothy on from the but-just-not-plan-c dept.

aarondubrow writes Automakers have presented a vision of the future where the driver can check his or her email, chat with friends or even sleep while shuttling between home and the office. However, to AI experts, it's not clear that this vision is a realistic one. In many areas, including driving, we'll go through a long period where humans act as co-pilots or supervisors before the technology reaches full autonomy (if it ever does). In such a scenario, the car would need to communicate with drivers to alert them when they need to take over control. In cases where the driver is non-responsive, the car must be able to autonomously make the decision to safely move to the side of the road and stop. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed 'fault-tolerant planning' algorithms that allow semi-autonomous machines to devise and enact a "Plan B."

2 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:they're a disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    YM:

    If one isn't aware of the performance of human drivers, let me break it down for you. They can't stop for construction or understand rerouting from it or obey temporary signs. In fact, they speed up to try to prevent other drivers from maneuvering safely. They can't see stoplight colors while the sun is setting anywhere near behind them. They can't drive on snow at all. They will slam on the brakes for a piece of newspaper blowing across the road or other low density objects. They think puddles are obstructions and will slam on the brakes.

    HTH.

    Same exact things apply to humans, except autonomous vehicles are not drunk, stoned, high, tweaking, distracted, on a cell phone, texting, fapping, taking their anger out on the road, or don't have the reflexes to drive... but have to as there is no other way of doing things.

  2. Re:they're a disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You're commenting on the performance of companies that tried to eat the whole enchilada in one bite. The companies to watch are the ones introducing autonomy features in incremental features, such as lane assist, adaptive cruise control, etc. They will spend more time on a smaller amount of content in order to get it right one small piece at a time.