Autonomous Car Drivers Could Face A Mid-Journey Distraction Ban

Drivers of autonomous cars could be banned from doing any other tasks, like reading, even while the car is driving itself, according to researchers
Autonomous Car Drivers Could Face A Mid-Journey Distraction Ban

One of the main advantages of autonomous cars could be wiped out, if a new study’s recommendations are adopted into law.

‘Autonomous vehicle consortium’ Venturer has issued advice that all owners of such cars might have to be banned from carrying out any other tasks while the car is in control. That means we could kiss goodbye to the idea of reading, studying, eating or watching Alex’s latest CT videos while the car is driving.

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To clarify, if these recommendations were made law, you would simply have to sit there and attempt to concentrate on safety. As we discovered in the Uber crash that killed a homeless woman, human attention wanders when it isn’t put under specific demands.

This would remove one of the chief benefits of having an autonomous car in the first place. Being able to use your time more productively is essential to the core appeal of the concept. Not everyone is as bothered about the relative safety benefits as certain campaign groups might like to make out, and selling self-driving cars on that basis alone won’t be enough.

Autonomous Car Drivers Could Face A Mid-Journey Distraction Ban

Venturer’s research suggests that autonomous car ‘drivers’ need around two seconds to regain full control of the car after a warning was sounded. At 50mph that means 45 metres travelled with the car effectively in limbo.

Professor Sarah Sharples, the snappily-titled Associate Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Human Factors at the University of Nottingham, was part of the study. She said:

“It is… important to understand the implications of increased autonomy on the capability of humans to maintain vigilance and attention in order to be able to respond to an emergency situation.

“It may also be necessary for the rollout of highly autonomous vehicles to be accompanied with the advice – or even law – that in some or all circumstances the driver must maintain attention to the driver situation and that other activities should be minimised or avoided.”

Autonomous Car Drivers Could Face A Mid-Journey Distraction Ban

Reading between the lines, this would put the accident liability onus firmly onto the human rather than the software engineers at car makers. In turn, it would mean that drivers simply couldn’t afford to take their eyes off the road just in case there’s a glitch in the programme. That sounds even more stressful than driving can already get…

Source: Auto Express

Comments

Mehdi Behira

Who cares about autonomous cars when Alcantara is a brand?!

04/17/2018 - 12:03 |
63 | 25

Dead meme

04/17/2018 - 12:11 |
37 | 6

Plz stop

04/17/2018 - 12:20 |
6 | 1

Lmao

04/17/2018 - 15:53 |
2 | 5

this ‘alcantara’ would make big history for CT, especially CTzens. Yet the fact it is a brand. I thought the name was a chemical household product.

04/18/2018 - 03:00 |
1 | 1
Anonymous

I was expecting something along these lines to be honest. Either they take it autonomy away or make it unusable with out some consequence. What worries me is that we will have something along the lines of iRobot or worse Terminator.

04/17/2018 - 12:09 |
10 | 0
Olivier (CT's grammar commie)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

How tf could an autonomous car could be compared to a T-1000?

04/17/2018 - 16:17 |
0 | 0
Mr.PurpleV12

People are going to be angry now because this will defeat the purpose honestly.

04/17/2018 - 12:13 |
35 | 0

Uber shows us that there are still some issues with it, so doing this now is a good thing.
As the technology evolves there will be more and more fully autonomous transportation, I can almost guarantee that. But for now, it’s better to be aware while sitting behind the steering wheel.

04/17/2018 - 14:43 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

Haha good good, pointless now

04/17/2018 - 12:52 |
4 | 0
=ash=

Aw, I was hoping to turn on my Tesla, lie down, put my legs on the dashboard and play Fortnite. Guess that ain’t gonna happen no more.

04/17/2018 - 12:55 |
5 | 1
Anonymous

In reply to by =ash=

Well that’s gonna happen. But only with stage 5 autonomous driving. Which probably isn’t the car for you as a car person (I’m assuming this since you’re aware of this app) bc you won’t have a steering wheel nor pedals…

04/17/2018 - 18:46 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

I bet that everyone would rather be driving than doing nothing

04/17/2018 - 13:09 |
11 | 0
Anonymous

Now that it’s pointless, they might as well ditch the entire system.

04/17/2018 - 13:09 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

Yeah, no one wants that accident to happen again

04/17/2018 - 13:18 |
2 | 0
TheHoosier

There is no way people will be disciplined enough to stay focused on the road when all they are doing is just sitting there. At least I wouldn’t be able to focus very long.

04/17/2018 - 13:44 |
6 | 0
Wheel Nuts

People seem to forget that customers who buy autonomous vehicles at the moment are essentially test users to enable manufacturers to collect more real world data. The driver is supposed to be aware of the road conditions and supervise the vehicle. You will only be able to read a book behind the wheel (if it has a steering wheel) when we have level 4 and level 5 autonomous vehicles.

04/17/2018 - 13:55 |
1 | 0

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