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Self-Driving Features Could Lead To More Sex In Moving Cars, Expert Warns (www.cbc.ca)
An anonymous reader writes: According to CBC.ca, "At least one expert is anticipating that, as the so-called 'smart' cars get smarter, there will eventually be an increase in an unusual form of distracted driving: hanky-panky behind the wheel." Barrie Kirk of the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence said, "I am predicting that, once computers are doing the driving, there will be a lot more sex in cars. That's one of several things people will do which will inhibit their ability to respond quickly when the computer says to the human, 'Take over.'" Federal officials, who have been tasked with building a regulatory framework to govern driverless cars, highlighted their concerns in briefing notes compiled for Transport Minister Marc Garneau. "Drivers tend to overestimate the performance of automation and will naturally turn their focus away from the road when they turn on their auto-pilot," said the note. The Tesla autopilot feature has been receiving the most criticism as there have been many videos posted online showing Tesla drivers engaged in questionable practices, including reading a newspaper or brushing their teeth.
Tesla cars aren't really self-driving - but they're misleadingly marketed as such. My (cheaper) car has smart cruise control (with collision avoidance) and lane keeping, so on the highway it's safe to take my hands of the wheel or be distracted - for a second or two. I'd never confuse it with self-driving, though apparently and idiot or two has. Tesla's system is a bit better, so more idiots confuse it with self-driving, abetted by the was Tesla markets the feature.
That's just it, it's not a matter of "self-driving" vs "not", it's a spectrum of automation levels, and people will get confused, or just reckless for convenience.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Inclement weather is not accident avoidance. Especially ice. That is "Oh shit, I lost traction control on three of my tires!"
It is accident avoidance, because if there was no chance of an accident, then losing traction wouldn't have any negative consequences.
Cars already have anti-lock brakes, because a simple machine is already better at preventing you from losing traction that you are. This is precisely the sort of thing that I expect autonomous cars to excel at.
The autonomous system cannot determine if the road 100 meters ahead is covered in a thin sheen of black ice or not.
Why not?
People ARE dumb enough to be fucking behind the wheel while the autonomous system tries to navigate iced up roads.
What the fuck is a human supposed to add to the equation? bad judgement?
The best an autonomous system can do is aggregate road data from other autonomous cars nearby to attempt to determine if there is ice ahead. -- a fat load of good that does if your autonomous vehicle is the one that skids out on it first, or if your vehicle is not receiving such telemetry for whatever reason.
Yeah autonomous cars can do that. And I don't see how being the first human driver to skid out of control is any better.
I trust the idiot fucking behind the wheel of an autonomous vehicle about as much as I trust a politician not to lie. That is to say, not at all.
And like a lying politician, you don't have any better alternatives. Do you really want the guy with the bad judgement in charge of the death machine? The less control humans have the better.
Automation makes the driving experience more predictable by removing human error. This is both good and bad. It leads to conditions where the vehicle will make predictably bad choices, but the occupant will believe otherwise.
If they are making predictable errors, then that makes it all that much easier to fix the errors.
It's hilarious to me that people cite "ice" as an example of their precious human drivers being superior to machines,
Indeed. When a big snowstorm was predicted, Tesla sent out an email to inform owners that they should use Autopilot during the storm, because it would handle the hazardous conditions better than most human drivers.