Automakers struggling to keep drivers of automated cars engaged
After partially faulting Tesla’s automation system for a 2016 fatal crash, U.S. safety investigators last year called on carmakers to do more to ensure drivers stay engaged as next-generation cars start to steer themselves.
The National Transportation Safety Board has since opened investigations of three cases, two involving Tesla vehicles, that call into question the progress that’s been made in guarding against motorist misuse of semi-autonomous driving technology.
Tesla, a pioneer in driverassistance technology with its Autopilot system, has lagged automakers including General Motors in embracing driver monitoring. While the electric carmaker still relies on technology that federal investigators said was too easy to sidestep, it’s now working on unspecified improvements to its vehicles, according to the NTSB.
“They have indicated that they have already made some improvements and are working on additional improvements,” agency spokesman Peter Knudson said in the first indication that the company is contemplating more changes to its driverassistance system. NTSB highway investigators have been in contact with Tesla technical staff, he added.
A Tesla spokeswoman declined to comment on the NTSB’s recommendations for improved driver monitoring.
The difficulty of keeping drivers in automated vehicles engaged — combined with the broader safety benefits of ensuring that drivers in traditional vehicles aren’t peering at electronic devices or nodding off — is a growing safety concern that’s spurred several car companies, including GM and Subaru, to deploy infrared cameras in the cockpit trained on the driver to track head and eye movement.
Driver-monitoring technology is needed for any vehicle that needs humans to handle part of the driving task, said Bryan Reimer, who studies driver behavior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This includes conventional vehicles without driver-assist systems; cars that guide themselves for some periods without human inputs, such as Cadillac models featuring GM’s Super Cruise; and self-driving cars with people serving as safety monitors.
Motorists today are bombarded