On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 6:11 PM Peri Hartman via EV <[email protected]> wrote:
> I don't have first hand experience using Tesla's autopilot. Assuming you > are paying attention, then what is it like when autopilot fails and you > have to take control ? If you are paying attention, it seems to me that > it might take a tenth second or so to react. I'll guess that in nearly > all cases, that would be enough time to handle the car easily and > safely. > > However, I'll further conjecture that most drivers aren't really paying > close attention when on autopilot. Even if they have the hands on the > wheel, how much time would they take to react ? One-half second ? More ? > That makes a huge difference in safety. > This is my real issue with AutoPilot / FSD Beta - really, any driver assist system that does most of the driving. For safety a human being has to be monitoring the situation. As a point of comparison, let's say we set up a test where you and a friend have your hands extended. Their hand is over yours. This is the slapping game. The goal is for them to be able to slap your hand before you can pull it away. If you play this game and slaps come within, say, 10 seconds you will be prepared. You might not always win the game but you are looking intently and you're ready. If they so much as move their hand you start to tense up. Reaction time is very rapid. Now, extend that game such that the slap might come within a 1 minute window. Your reaction time is likely a bit less because you get a little bored and focus fatigued. Now extend the time to 30 minutes. If the slap comes at the 21 minute mark you have probably long spaced out and aren't actively paying attention any longer. Let's add a TV which is on and playing a movie in the background. Almost certainly after 21 minutes you've been watching the movie instead of playing "the game." Semi-autonomous driving is like that. You get complacent when things are going well. The reaction time gets worse and worse the longer a human is not really required. Then, when you are required there is no time for the human brain to get back in the game and assess the situation before it is catastrophic. It seems to me that everyone likes to minimize this aspect of the discussion. But, it's the most important part I'd say. FSD Beta is dangerous because it is not yet fully able to handle all situations but it is very tough to convince the human brain to pay attention to minute details when nothing exciting is happening. This is also why guards work in shifts. If your job is to "look into the woods and find the bad guys that might be here in 5 minutes or 5 days" you WILL get bored. _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
