I’m not rich enough to afford a Tesla Model S but what exactly is the purpose of the autopilot? You have to keep your hands on the steering wheel all the time as if you were driving the car on your own, you have to carefully watch the traffic, you have to be alert to take control of the car if the system fails, every second. If it crashes, you are responsible. Sounds quite dumb to me, you would be better of if you just drive it yourself. My suspicion: Almost all “autopilot” drivers will lose concentration after a few minutes max and start on daydreaming, texting on their phones or watching Hairy Twatter movies. If something is going wrong and the autopilot fails it takes them 10 seconds to wake up and act. Sounds like an outrageous dangerous gadget to me. Wonder how something like this ever got street legal
Exactly, the responsibility with all of these assists... no matter how far they advance... will still be the driver's. When does it "cross over" to the point that driver's are not responsible? Ultimately, we are heading towards the autonomously piloting vehicle where passengers will have no control of the vehicle whatsoever. Only at that point will you be able to sit back, with no control, and pray the systems are all working properly. Much like when taking public transportation.
Will these "transitory" technologies save lives? No doubt the stats are being gathered and we will know in a few years whether there is more benefit than harm. We know seat belts and airbags save lives. We also suspect that driver assist systems, given an ALERT AND AWARE DEFENSIVE DRIVER, save more lives because they fill in some of those "gaps" that sometimes still cause accidents. The key term is: "ALERT and AWARE DEFENSIVE DRIVER" + Driver assist = Save more lives than just ALERT and AWARE DEFENSIVE DRIVER *alone.
But.... What we don't know yet is if driver assist systems cause too much "complacency" and therefore drivers will not be as focused and alert and defensive. That is:
UNAWARE/BAD/DISTRACTED DRIVER + Driver Assist
...is WORSE THAN...
ALERT/AWARE DEFENSIVE DRIVER (with or without Driver Assist)
The Driver Assist may cause increases in DISTRACTED DRIVERS. Especially now with all the tech in cars.
We just got a 2016 Honda Pilot with Nav and it is full of technologies. However, I have tried to drive the thing and it is too distracting. The radio has 50 options, all ergonomically stupid. Touch-screen, buttons, menus all over, dozens of buttons on the steering wheel. It's barely usable when you are in park. Now imagine driving down the road at a high clip and trying to figure out something on the menu or navigation.
And I'm not some old geezer (no offense to old geezers). I'm in my 40's and experienced with computers and programming and have multitasked my whole life. But the interfaces in cars really sucks. At least this Honda one. All of the assists, buttons, features, etc... have only added to the "feature sheet" and may be great in theory but when the average driver needs to go from A to B, this stuff seems to be just overkill.
Compared to only a few years ago... My 2011 Honda CR-V (no Nav) has a simple radio system, no touch screen, no bluetooth, etc. I drive and listen to MP3's on USB or iPod hooked up to the USB input, or AUX in, Radio or CD Player or XM Radio. Very few buttons and options comparatively. I don't get distracted by a million tech features in the car.... And even then, I have to pay full attention to the road because driving these days in a major city requires a lot of attention.
I feel like car companies have reached a limit on innovation on the mechanical/fuel efficiency side, or they feel the easiest way to get people to "upgrade" to a new car is by enticing them with technology improvements... since the cycle on tech is faster than the cycle on a car rusting or dying mechanically. Since most tech is deeply "built-in" to cars, it will be difficult to really upgrade a car with older tech. It is not easy to rip out the entire dash and fit in a new system. I'm going to stick to my basic few-distraction interior for now.