Is The Belief That A Car Is Autonomous An Increasingly Common New Danger?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54197344
Clearly the driver and passenger were under the impression that the car was autonomous. Clearly many people are too stupid to have this feature in their car. Time to end this madness?

[fiction-factory]

I believe people who drive non-autonomous cars also sometimes do things they shouldn't do while driving- texting, watching films, newspaper spread over the wheel, speeding

[ToraToraTora]

yes but not many of them fully recline their seats and nod off at 90mph. You would only do that if you had a belief that the car was driving itself.

[fiction-factory]

The common element is that some people are dumb. A bit like someone boasting on AB that they break the Covid restrictions all the time and then a few minutes later complaining about a tightening being considered necessary

[ToraToraTora]

who does that FF?

[ToraToraTora]

FF: "The common element is that some people are dumb" - well that's the point really, is it safe to have cruise control with knobs on with eejits like that about?

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe. I guess on purchase folk should pass a simple test of understanding. Perhaps an IQ test too.

[Old_Geezer]

Some of the eejits encountered on the road shouldn't be there anyway, autonomous car or not. (Came across a major one yesterday, driving an articulated lorry but clearly with no understanding of what was acceptable behaviour.)

[pixie374]

What is worrying, is that this is all still being tested. I'm making a massive presumption here, that they haven't deliberately chosen the very worst drivers and total brain donors...? These are normal people, who realise this isn't foolproof.
This is the best it will get. If I was testing one of these, I would probably get a headache from trying to concentrate and second guess what the car might do, but already, these people are getting bored, distracted and underestimated enough to lose concentration. It isn't even about the tech, but just human nature.
You just cannot expect a person to sit still, do absolutely nothing, but remain fully alert and ready to takeover at any moment (usually too late, as the car has already failed). Let them actually drive it- and then, they will concentrate.

[pixie374]

Understimulated, not underestimated!

[ToraToraTora]

this was not a test pixie.

[pixie374]

No... but surely they are new to most people? That is when you will be the most cautious. A few trips with no accidents, and people will switch off.

[archibaldy]

As with all new technology roll-outs, it will be refined over time to best accommodate the 'man on the street'. Because that's where the big money is.

The difference between Windows 3.0 or the 1984 MacOS which only the geeks could use - or would even want to use - safely, to the Windows 10 or iPad/iPhone/iMac systems today that everyone can use safely and intuitively is phenomenal and has taken a lot of work.

The stage we are at at the moment with auto-drive technology is, although out of lab stage, just a stepping stone. Full autonomy is coming and there is no stopping it because - just like "A PC on every desktop" and now in every pocket - the societal and economic benefits are too great for it to stop.

[tomus42]

I don't understand why you keep going on about these vehicles TTT. Stupid people die all the time doing all kinds of stupid things. Why obsess about this one thing?

[AZardoz]

It's worse than that. He actually prefers drunk drivers.
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1717896-3.html#answer-12541370

Brilliant. All the more reason to get the likes of him off the road.

[Old_Geezer]

Well, sober drivers cause more accidents than drunk ones, so we needs to get the sober ones off the road so we drunks can drive in safety.

[ToraToraTora]

Azardoz: "It's worse than that. He actually prefers drunk drivers. " - ah that's a good example of the "so" rule without actually using the word so! AH would love that.