Re:Driverless Cars Threaten to Crash Insurers’ Earnings
by JoshTriplett on Tuesday July 26, 2016 @06:38PM
(#12169264)
First, those pilots are heavily trained and certified, far more than car drivers. And second, far more accidents occur due to humans than due to mechanical failure (and of "mechanical failure", only a subset of those involve incorrect autopilot, though I haven't found that broken out). http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm puts total human causes at 67% (53% of which is pilot error), and mechanical failure at 20%.
Some accidents also occur specifically when pilots ignore/override the automatic systems; I'd be interested to see statistics on that, too, but I haven't found any.
Re:Driverless Cars Threaten to Crash Insurers’ Earnings
by pyre on Tuesday July 26, 2016 @06:53PM
(#12169324)
Do you have statistics on the number of times that the pilot has to take control because the auto-pilot is unable to cope or is doing the wrong thing? Focusing just human-caused accidents vs. machine-caused accidents ignores this.
Re:Driverless Cars Threaten to Crash Insurers’ Earnings
by sokoloff on Tuesday July 26, 2016 @07:06PM
(#12169384)
I don't have the stats, but I have a bit over 1000 hours as a pilot of light aircraft.
"What's it doing now?" is a common question in the industry, and the subject of this excellent American Airlines training seminar video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN41LvuSz10&t=21m41s
(The whole video is good, but that's the specific automation confusion question.)
Those planes with their auto-pilot system still have a means for the pilots to intervene. That's not quite the same as being in a vehicle for which no human has the possibility of intervening. (It's also a bit disingenuous to imply that it is.)