[HN Gopher] Driverless cars are no place to relax, new study shows
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       Driverless cars are no place to relax, new study shows
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2023-08-28 17:55 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (techxplore.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (techxplore.com)
        
       | Kirby64 wrote:
       | This seems like... An obvious conclusion? Also since no level 3
       | or level 4 cars exist (besides the Mercedes in extremely limited
       | applications), this essentially is untestable in the real world.
       | How the car responds to a disengagement seems to be the key
       | issue. Apparently the Mercedes gives you 10 whole seconds to
       | respond... Which should be more than enough time to pay attention
       | and put down your phone you're texting on.
       | 
       | I can say from experience, that TACC and lane keeping
       | significantly reduces my mental load while driving, especially
       | for long periods of time. Highway driving constantly requires you
       | to center the car, and something that does that for you makes
       | doing the rest of the driving (watching out for traffic issues,
       | construction management, etc) much much easier in my view. That's
       | only level 2, however. It still requires you to pay attention,
       | it's just a different kind of attention in my view.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | Maybe if it were routine for longer drives?
         | 
         | But, when I have an hour-ish ride to the airport, if I'm not
         | chit-chatting with a chatty driver, I'm mostly scrolling
         | through news etc. I'm mostly not firing up something to immerse
         | myself in--obviously much less so if I have to pay some modicum
         | of attention.
        
         | slondr wrote:
         | Is it obvious? Waymo has hundreds of driverless taxis in SF
         | where you literally cannot sit in the driver's seat. Stuff that
         | consumers can currently get their hands on isn't really
         | driverless but the tech exists now.
        
           | Kirby64 wrote:
           | For cars like Waymo/Cruise/etc, those are Level 5 to my
           | knowledge (with restrictions for location, I guess). You
           | can't sit in the drivers seat, so how can the passengers
           | possibly pay attention or do anything? This study is talking
           | about drivers (in the drivers seat) and Level 3/4 technology.
           | So, what Mercedes is advertising and other car manufacturers
           | are aiming for in the future.
        
             | AlotOfReading wrote:
             | Level 5 is essentially defined as L4 with an "unlimited"
             | ODD, not a meaningful level on its own. Waymo and Cruise
             | are L4 systems, but you could build an L4 system where
             | people were able to drive if you wished.
        
               | Kirby64 wrote:
               | I get that it's defined that way, but it's not,
               | practically speaking, the same. The article is about a
               | driver having L3/L4 tech. Waymo/Cruise are not allowing
               | that. So you truly can relax/nap/do work email... because
               | what else would you do?
        
       | autoexec wrote:
       | I wouldn't even relax driving near them. You never know when one
       | of them will slam on the breaks for no reason or swerve suddenly.
       | I've seen Tesla drivers say their cars will do that unexpectedly
       | even while diving in manual.
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-28 23:02 UTC)