Re:Driverless cars are stuck in a jam
by maxerickson on Tuesday October 29, 2019 @07:23AM
(#21385885)
The sudden control swap you describe is level 3.
Level 4 requires that the vehicle safely stop in situations it can't handle.
We do have some data. E.g., the Volvo XC90 hasn't killed any passengers, ever, thanks to collision detection and emergency braking systems: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/15/britains-safest-...
It is possible , we would need data,
The extremely sad part is that we could reduce the number of deaths until true AI arrives using simple tech that could detect if the driver is drunk or tired, and controversially forcing the speed limits(the car knows that this road is max 90Km/h and that the driver has less then 1 year experience so it will not let you get over 70 (local laws apply) unless you activate emergency mode - this would trigger some bad consequences if it was no emergency)
Level 4 for example could be a blood bath, where cars drive all the easy situations, and hand over emergency control to out of practice drivers barely paying attention at a moments notice.
I believe our driving skills were better when we had manual transmission, and were more involved in overall operation. Hard to determine if safer, b/c of advances in crumple zones, airbags, etc as manual declined.