Unfortunately, this will not sound like a news to many (me included.). But yet another Tesla driver was caught napping behind the wheel of a semi-autonomous vehicle in Edmonton, Alberta.
How come this isn’t news you ask? Well, there are now countless examples of erratic, unsafe drivers blatantly misusing (and abusing) vehicle automation.
The National Transportation Safety Boards’ investigations following a handful of fatal and nonfatal collisions involving Tesla Autopilot reported that driver’s inattention and over-reliance on the system, coupled with system’s operational design contributed to these collisions.
Also, this summer, German regulators ruled that the Autopilot name is misleading motorists to believe that Autopilot is in fact an auto-pilot .. which is not.
Efforts from the American Automobile Association and others have recently contributed to the development of a naming convention for semi-autonomous systems that hopes to help consumers make educated decisions when purchasing a vehicle, and reduce the likelihood of misusing its systems.
Much has been done thus far to promote a safe adoption of these systems. My research and others’ have contributed to better understand how Human Factors affect driver’s adoption of autonomous and semi-autonomous systems. Transportation agencies and road safety stakeholders are too pushing for safe regulations. But much more needs to be done.
References
Biondi et al. (2018).80 MPH and out-of-the-loop: Effects of real-world semi-automated driving on driver workload and arousal https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931218621427
CBC (2020). Speeding Tesla driver caught napping behind the wheel on Alberta highway https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/tesla-driver-napping-alberta-speeding-1.5727828
Credit: CBC