Posts by adamjcook@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AWgPW9uz20nyqTk7Ie by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-06-14T13:12:34Z
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Seriously, fuck this bigot.#Musk #Twitter
(DIR) Post #AXNp5McZx4WflrlAZc by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:02:17Z
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Let's talk about #Mercedes vehicles equipped with #DrivePilot a bit - a Level 3-capable vehicle that has been recently "approved" in a handful of US states.This article almost entirely focuses on the legal dynamics of consumer liability should this vehicle create a direct (or, presumably, an indirect) incident.But, as always, I want to talk about what I feel are the #SystemsSafety realities at work here and the many foot-guns that are associated with that.#carshttps://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/mercedes-drive-pilot-automated-system-poses-legal-questions🧵👇
(DIR) Post #AXNp5OWGtUfXespA1I by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:02:38Z
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What is a Level 3-capable vehicle?Put simply, per the #SAE #J3016 standard (which is not safety standard), this is a vehicle that is capable (by definition, not necessarily practically) of detecting a certain amount of failures to the Dynamic Driving Task (DDT) within a certain Operational Design Domain (ODD).With some exceptions, the human driver can (theoretically) remain inattentive to the performance of the DDT until the automated system demands that they regain operational control.
(DIR) Post #AXNp5QMm1mGBO0ObUe by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:03:22Z
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Distilled from that verbose definition, the image below is how #Mercedes describes the capabilities of their vehicle.On paper, a strict "vehicle control responsibility" separation **seemingly** exists.The Mercedes vehicle drives until "it can't" and then, after a sufficient warning time provided by the vehicle, the human driver regains situational awareness and operational control of the vehicle.Simple enough, right? 🤔
(DIR) Post #AXNp5S9jNF10w8JDRQ by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:04:35Z
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Well...Humans are not machines and human drivers are not homogeneous and it is entirely unclear how long of the duration of this "warning time" needs to be in an infinite number of conditions.That is what is called #HumanFactors considerations, in part.But let us put the "human element" out-of-mind here.I submit it is not necessary here.Let's get back to the article - and, in particular, a statement by one of the legal experts cited within it:
(DIR) Post #AXNp5Tx2hO3QVMO6wS by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:05:02Z
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The legal expert cited, Professor William Widen and Professor Phil Koopman have offered their thoughts on attributing liability (between the vehicle and the human driver), as linked to in the article.That work is here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4444854It is a sensible proposal and Professor Koopman is one of the foremost experts in #SafetyCritical systems, #robotics and #AutomatedDriving systems.Still, I submit that no proposal can quantifiably protect consumers with this type of system.Why?
(DIR) Post #AXNp5VgoEiG1taoAuu by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:05:49Z
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The core issue, again put simply, is that law enforcement is structurally ill-equipped to take full, immediate control of the vehicle and secure its (physical **and** digital) chain-of-custody when an incident occurs with these vehicles.That is it.What will **instead** happen is that law enforcement, courts, regulators and insurance companies will be at the complete mercy of #Mercedes (in this case) in terms of vehicle data and, most probably, an interpretation of the events!
(DIR) Post #AXNp5Xe2xxEhxbWztA by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:06:46Z
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Now, you, as the human driver are also effectively at the mercy of #Mercedes!The laws on the books do not matter.And the considerable "friction" of pursuing an open-ended legal claim against Mercedes' data advantages will always work against you.The #NTSB, the US's independent transportation safety investigator, foresaw this asymmetric data relationship as far back as 2016 - and, naturally, the US's hapless auto safety regulator, the #NHTSA, simply ignored it.https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a19785733/teslantsb-feud-shows-complications-of-crash-investigations-involving-autonomous-systems/
(DIR) Post #AXNp5ZY5t3f9rilGt6 by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-05T11:07:46Z
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All of this means that the "warning time", no matter what anyone or any law says, is **actually** 0 seconds.And consumers should recognize this because consumers are (and will increasingly be) being covertly and dangerously misled.Level 3-capable vehicles **cannot** have a clear delineation of human driver liability if governments cannot commit to maintaining a chain-of-custody and an independent, forensic investigation of all incidents.And, spoiler, governments will not commit to that.
(DIR) Post #AXorc1OM0DRIGDo3mK by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-18T12:57:15Z
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A missed opportunity, in my view, to discuss how #SiliconValley’s somewhat recent entry into the #SafetyCritical systems space is really the far more pressing issue here.Hand-waving systems safety yields *enormous* cost savings (far more than is typically expected) and is corrosive to a modern society in ways that courts could never rectify once sufficiently lost.https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-big-tech-antitrust-predatory-pricing-uber-wework-bird-2023-7
(DIR) Post #AXorc3TkF8wKjWLOSW by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-18T12:57:15Z
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#SystemsSafety has an odd power.People today cannot really remember a time when everyday products would readily kill or maim. So, having lost those experiences over the decades, Silicon Valley increasingly saw a business opportunity.But modern society is grounded on the public’s trust and, given enough critical mass, trust can be virtually lost overnight.Quite literally.That is Great Depression stuff right there, folks.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWp2LJ4omyrIvei by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:38:58Z
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This is a lie. #Musk is lying here.At no time, are #Tesla vehicles capable of “driving themselves” - only capable of the illusion that they are, which Musk exploits.This is a common Musk Lie, made in the interest of selling Tesla vehicles and pricey add-ons.People have died under this lie and will continue to do so, completely avoidably.Let’s explore the underlying foundations of this lie and why it is so dangerous.🧵
(DIR) Post #AY1jWq49TprMAl9t7A by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:41:20Z
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First off, let us look at #Tesla’s “official” statement, from their website, as to the *true* limitations of #Autopilot and the #FSDBeta products.Hmm. That does not sound like Tesla itself is confident that their vehicles can drive themselves at any time. 🤔Because the vehicles cannot.But #Musk and Tesla play this dangerous, deceptive mind game with the public - and it is indeed a mind game.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWqqiZGhwbNsfoW by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:43:48Z
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Now, let’s look at the underlying #SystemsSafety part.#Autopilot and #FSDBeta-equipped vehicles are Level 2-capable vehicles - with the exact same *limitations* as many other vehicles on the market today.Namely, the key limitation is that the human driver must remain the fallback for any dynamic driving task or vehicle failures at all times and under all conditions.Effectively, that means that the human has the exact same control responsibilities between the two vehicles shown below.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWrdddNq736lk48 by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:44:35Z
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Zero difference.Only the *illusion* of a difference yielded by the presence of a poorly-understood (by the general public), opaque automated driving system.#Automation, when paired with a human, is inherently dangerous.Many believe that any kind of automation, sprinkled on top of a car, will automatically and definitely make the combined human-machine system “safer”.Nothing can be further from the truth.We can look to Autopilot in commercial aircraft as a contrasting example.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWsGHJikQywqbIG by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:45:38Z
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Many also believe that automation enhances the engineered system part, the vehicle or the aircraft.Not true.#Automation, in fact, *invisibly* sits between the human operator and the vehicle controls.Aircraft has fallen from the sky, operated by multiple, highly-seasoned pilots, right in front of the aircraft controls, for *minutes* due to the inherent danger of this invisible specter.Only an acute respect for that fact can challenge that deadly, *subconscious* complacency.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWstcxQDuwzG1cu by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:47:11Z
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#Tesla hand-waves this #HumanFactors fact as well on their official Autopilot product website, as shown below.That “relaxation”, that “workload reduction” you might feel when using #Autopilot or #FSDBeta?Guess what that *really* is?Complacency.Deadly complacency.And it strikes when you least expect it, when the vehicle suddenly encounters a failure and it takes you an additional second or three to regain situational and operational awareness.Tesla washes its hands of that though.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWtk5oMBtZhnvP6 by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:47:44Z
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Indeed. Flight automation (Autopilot) has yielded enormous commercial airtravel safety benefits - but obtaining such benefits was far from “free”.Aircraft pilots are continuously and meticulously trained, supervised and managed.Flight deck interfaces and processes are maintained similarly.Humans that operate control towers feed in critical flight information to these flight automation systems.An enormous ballet of interacting processes are necessary to complement safe flight automation.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWuPDLT5HdF2lV2 by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:48:32Z
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None of that exists in the context of roadway vehicle automation.Human drivers are not exhaustively trained and supervised - and it is impractical to do so.That is why the #Musk Lie above is so dangerous.We already have an unmanaged automated system on the public roadways and Tesla/Musk further enhance the human driver complacency that already *inherently* exists.Zero safety upside to Musk’s Tweet above.Only a safety downside.
(DIR) Post #AY1jWvAiUr580ZGhXc by adamjcook@mastodon.social
2023-07-24T15:50:13Z
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Hey Secretary #Buttigieg, If your #NHTSA investigators are still wondering, after years of twiddling their thumbs, why #Autopilot-active, #Tesla vehicles keep slamming into the back of roadside emergency vehicles… I just provided you with the answer.Free of charge.https://jalopnik.com/tesla-autopilot-may-be-responsible-for-another-fatal-cr-1850204165