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Most Drivers Don't Understand Limitations of Car Safety Systems, AAA Finds (usatoday.com)
A new study by AAA found that most drivers don't understand the limitations of advanced safety technology installed on their new vehicles. "The study indicates that drivers overestimate the capabilities of features such as blind-spot monitoring systems, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control," reports USA Today. "The findings raise questions about whether Americans are ready to adapt to partially self-driving vehicles, which typically require drivers to remain alert and ready to take over the steering wheel if the car can't handle the conditions it encounters." Here are the problem spots flagged by AAA:
- Blind-spot monitoring: Nearly 80 percent of drivers don't understand the limitations or thought that the system had greater capability to detect fast-approaching vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Relying too much on blind-spot monitoring, about 25 percent don't look for oncoming vehicles when they change lanes.
- Forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking: Many drivers confuse the two. One is a warning system, while the other takes action. More than 40 percent of drivers don't know these limitations.
- Adaptive cruise control: About 29 percent of drivers who use this system, which accelerates and brakes on its own, are sometimes comfortable "engaging in other activities" while the system is activated, according to the study. The researchers did note that these safety features can prevent about 40 percent of crashes and 30 percent of crash deaths.
- Forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking: Many drivers confuse the two. One is a warning system, while the other takes action. More than 40 percent of drivers don't know these limitations.
- Adaptive cruise control: About 29 percent of drivers who use this system, which accelerates and brakes on its own, are sometimes comfortable "engaging in other activities" while the system is activated, according to the study. The researchers did note that these safety features can prevent about 40 percent of crashes and 30 percent of crash deaths.
No matter how you look at it, having a human in the loop is a setup for failure. Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.
Hire a well-paid, attentive train driver, hold him to the flame, and be done with it.
Try taking a train in the US. It's seriously fucked up.
The Lane-keep Assist can't see through pouring rain either. Those Audi and BMW drivers are endangering themselves and others.
Of course, this isn't really a problem with just new cars. Even in old cars, my fellow Californians drive in mountaintop snow as if it's still a sunny day! Coming from the snowy northeast, I think it's insance to see people doing 80 mpg when it's snowing, but Californians don't know any better.
- In all of these cases, they just have no clue that they should "slow down" in dangerous conditions. Some don't even turn-on their headlights when it's raining & hard to see. Probably a lack of thinking.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
the individuals are not even bothering to check behind them, or check their side mirrors, etc.because the safety devices in the cars would warn them. The industry has been dumbing down driving. I have always seen this as a problem. You tell individuals buy our car and you won't need to worry about something they won't.
;)
Also if the safety devices may be perfect, How are driver less cars to work at this point in the development cycle. I believe in driver less cars but feel they are further in our future than most think.
Note the Tesla driver putting his car on auto pilot and then watching a movie before his wreak. Can't say that was really Tesla's fault! They say your supposed to be poised with your hands hovering over the wheel and aware of the situation and be ready to take control. In that case I would just be doing the driving to help me stay aware and awake.
Just my 2 cents
I watch a TED talk by the head of googles driverless car project. He said in the talk that you cant partially automate a car for exactly this reason. Has to be all or nothing. Google new this years ago. See here https://www.ted.com/talks/chri...
GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
"WARNING: This device has a 30% chance of getting your dick torn off if used improperly."
Politicians and marketers learned you have to be short, blunt, dramatic, and over-simplistic to get anybody's attention these days.
Table-ized A.I.
The assistive technologies increase the average response times of the drivers according to German research. The response time can be as long 6 to 8 seconds, with 90% drivers taking 12 to 15 seconds to check mirrors and become fully aware of the traffic. The out of sync brains need to re-synchronize with the speed of traffic, probably. Maybe an automatically administered UN-forbidden stimulant with some repeating electric shocks could help? Everything for safety is the word on the street, after all.
Disclaimer: Opinions follow
1. Technology is magic - Joe consumer doesn't seem to understand just how far apart technologies are. "Hey Alexa order more toilet paper" is just as magical to them as self driving cars.
2. The tech industry - to hear them tell it we've entered the AI age, machine learning, buzzword buzzword buzzword. But most of what is being called AI is really just really clever data analysis
3. The media - the media makes my previous points worse by playing up the buzzwords and "technology is magic" ideas
4. Personal responsibility - Joe consumer overestimates the capabilities of technology and places too much trust in them on the assumption the manufacturer is looking out for the consumers best interest. See also: Skepticism
5. Skepticism - Joe consumer doesn't think skeptically. Most of these systems are considered to be assistive. Look at the words used "warning" "avoidance" "alert" even "assist". These words are used to shift responsibility from the manufacturer to the owner/operator. And the owner's manual... The owners manual is mostly a place for disclaimers and more warnings. See also: Personal Responsibility
6. RTFM - this is the combination of my previous thoughts. It is your responsibility to understand the capabilities and limitations of the technology and the stakes. It is perhaps less problematic to not understand how Siri and your iPhone work than it is to understand how the assistive systems on a massive, high speed projectile guided by distracted and minimially trained humans work.
Replace lazy ill-informed hubris-filled humans with bots designed by lazy ill-informed hubris-filled corporations. Genius!
Table-ized A.I.
Some of these numbers seem about like what I've observed of drivers who probably don't have these technologies. Within the past week I've had at least 4 drivers I can remember, including a bus driver and a truck driver, switch lanes while I was beside them. I doubt I drove more than about 80 miles total during that time - all in city traffic. I don't think the vehicles I remember were new enough to have blind spot monitoring or that I was really in a blind spot. Also, I drive about the same speed as the other traffic, so I was not approaching fast or anything that could have caused the issue. None of them looked.
Also, I've seen people going down the interstate reading newspapers, reading books, shaving, etc. most of my life. They were likely using plain old-fashioned non-adaptive cruise control. I don't know that 29% feeling comfortable doing other things while using their adaptive cruise control is a significant increase over regular cruise control without seeing the control group data.
AAA is all about changing people's behaviors. Even if these technologies show no increase in problems, they would still publish this story because they see a potential for improvement if people change. And they would always leave out the control group because they want to shock people.
In general, if a technology requires driver education to be effective, forget it in this country. The only question that matters is whether the statistics indicate there is a reduction in accidents with the technology. If there is, use the technology. The fact that some get killed who might not have without it is irrelevant. Only the average matters when looking for societal progress.
Some do of course, and the idiots in question aren't always customers but can be other people in the vicinity. Ie, customer wanted us to turn off the power LED on the devices that are put up on telephone poles, because the customer said that in their state people like to shoot at boxes with LEDs for target practice.
And there are better idiots being generated of course. One radiation therapy machine put on two buttons to initiate the process far apart on opposite sides of the console to ensure that two operators were present, to avoid operator error on the dangerous machine. At one site when servicing a machine the technician noticed that the operator used a weight to depress one of the buttons.
> the car should stop moving.
FYI, that's one of the more dangerous things you can do. You're quite likely to get rear-ended or T-boned. Some people's default reaction of stomping on the brakes whenever something unexpected happens is a leading cause of accidents.
Most drivers can't drive.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Whether or not it's the rule, you're a fecking idiot not to.
For a start, airbags are about one tenth as effective without them.
And the reason that countries have it against the law for even your passengers to not wear seatbelts is: that them being fired into you at 130+mph when you have a head-on crash kills them, you and people around you. You survive the impact because of your own belt and airbag and crumple zones and then the fucking 60kg lump behind you hits you at 130mph and shoves you into the remains of your dash and wheel and airbag. You can literally launch people through the windscreen at that speed.
This guy sounds like EVERY point he brings up is to demonstrate exactly how he's the PRECISE category of person the article is aimed at. All kinds of warnings and he wants to turn them all off and ignore them, rather than drive such they aren't activated, and without even the basics of a seat-belt.
I honestly, genuinely hope the guy hits a static lamp-post or something - anything that'll show him he isn't the better judge of speed and distance, and why you want to wear a seatbelt whether it's law or not, and without hurting anyone else but himself. But, no, he's the type who'll take out a family coming the other way because he drifted out of lane, spent 20 seconds shutting off the warning, then it was too late to brake because he wasn't paying attention.
P.S. you get in my car, you put the belt on. It's not optional. I don't care if you're 8 or 80. Even though adult passengers have their own responsibility in my country (myself and any children are my responsibility as the driver). Literally, you take it off, I'm stopping the car. You refuse, you're walking. You "unclip" later in the journey, I'm stopping again.
Not because I'm a 20mph-everywhere kind of guy - because I ain't gonna visit you in hospital, or pay my insurance excess for you to try to claim your injuries against me, or deal with the paperwork of you being dead and proving that I advised you otherwise. I also ain't going to let your kids see you do that if you're with me.
No belt, no drive. It was the first English that my Italian relatives/friends (including kids) learned from me, because they're quite lax over there and when I was driving, even if it was "nono"'s car, they were having their belts on. There was no negotiation possible.
P.S. the fucking beeping warnings are there for a reason.
I dispute the likelihood of this story being accurate... for the simple reason that we didn't have Millenials back then.
The AAA lobbies for road building (as opposed to public transit, bike/pedestrian facilities, etc), claiming that it's large membership is behind them. If you don't want to support their lobbying efforts and are just looking for road service, there are other organizations out there...