Pretentious pilot
Human and machine attempt mutually satisfying interface
AS A futurist, I’ll admit it: I really suck. I remember when SMS was introduced, and everyone got in a lather over the fact they could faff about on a numeric key pad to send each other messages. “What?!” I scoffed incredulously. “Why would anyone bother with that hassle when they can hit one speed-dial key and actually speak to the person? Rubbish idea. Will never catch on.”
So, yeah, a few bazillion text messages later, I clearly got that one wrong.
I flag this so you know that anything I predict about automotive future tech, trends and autonomy is probably going to be hopelessly misguided, and if you can be bothered to check back here in a dozen or so years, you’ll probably see that borne out.
But I’m going to come out with it anyway: autonomous cars are coming, and the technology stands to split the driving world into two groups. There will be those who enjoy lounging around on their phones as the computers and sensors look after the driving, and there’ll be the rest of us, who sit there, eyes peeled into the traffic, shouting and swearing at the car with nerves jangled, utterly convinced we could be doing a better job of this complex task called driving.
I know it’s early days in the long march to the projected Level 5 autonomy that will make us nuffies redundant at the wheel, but spending time with the Pilot Assist system in the Volvo recently has forced me to face up to what I’ve probably suspected all along: I’m just too much of a control freak in a car to want to hand over the reins. On a run up the M1 towards Newcastle recently, my internal monologue urging the car to obey my commands and not its own brainpower nearly sent the computers and sensors off to lodge a complaint about workplace bullying.
By current standards, the adaptive radar cruise control works well, and does give a level of protection from inadvertently speeding. But fact is I don’t find it relaxing or in any way beneficial to leave the car to do the slowing down and speeding up. I’m in the driver’s seat; I can’t take a nap, so surely I may as well do it? I do it better, and it keeps my mind from wandering down worm-holes.
The assisted steering, too, brings mixed feelings. On a mostly straight or only gently deviating expressway, it holds the lane securely and can be useful to allow your eyes a break from the road, to take in the broader surroundings; perhaps admire some excellent roadside billboards or fields of cows, if you happen to be an enthusiast of either (I’m both).
It’s also all a bit ‘gee-whiz, here’s the future!’ when you go fully hands-off, but the car only allows you to do this for 30 seconds, so whatever it is you need to do with two hands, you need to get it done smartly. And if the road really curves, the car runs uncomfortably close to the centre divider or side Armco before the steering takes a series of small, reactive bites, rather than tracing a smooth, predictive arc.
That’s when you know you really can do this steering thing better than a machine, at least for now. Anyway, let’s check back in 2030 to see how awesome autonomy is, and how I love it, and how hopelessly wrong I was ... again.