Dozing testers prompt push for full auto autonomy
As Ford Motor Co. has been developing self-driving cars, the U.S. automaker has started noticing a problem during test drives: Engineers monitoring the robot rides are dozing off.
Company researchers have tried to roust the engineers with bells, buzzers, warning lights, vibrating seats and shaking steering wheels. They’ve even put a second engineer in the vehicle to keep tabs on his human counterpart.
No matter — the smooth ride was just too lulling and engineers struggled to maintain “situational awareness,” said Raj Nair, Ford’s product development chief.
The struggle to prevent snoozing-while-cruising has yielded a radical decision: Ford will venture to take the human out of the loop by removing the steering wheel, brake and gas pedals from its driverless cars debuting in 2021.
That sets Ford apart from most automakers including Audi and General Motors Co., which believe drivers can be counted on to take the wheel if an accident is imminent. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG’s Audi plan to roll out semi-autonomous cars starting next year that require drivers to take over with as little as 10 seconds notice.
On a scale embraced by the U.S. government, these cars qualify as Level 3 — more capable than cars where drivers do everything, but short of full automation.
Ford plans to skip that level altogether. The automaker has aligned with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, which made similar discoveries related to human inattention while researching Google’s driverless car.
“Level 3 may turn out to be a myth,” Waymo chief executive officer John Krafcik said of autonomous cars that require human intervention. “Perhaps it’s just not worth doing.” Ford and Waymo’s views show there’s a rift developing among the creators of autonomous cars over what role — if any — humans should play.
Most automakers believe that, at least initially, people must supplant the robot to avoid crashes in complex situations. Others contend that asking an inattentive human to respond in seconds to a life-or-death situation is a recipe for disaster.
“There’s evidence to suggest that Level 3 may show an increase in traffic crashes,” Nidhi Kalra, co-director of the Rand Center for Decision Making Under Uncertainty, said this week during a U.S. congressional hearing. “I don’t think there’s enough evidence to suggest that it should be prohibited at this time, but it does pose safety concerns.”
Advocates of Level 3 contend a human backup is required for safety and to allow consumers to get comfortable with the technology.
“You can even go to sleep and the car can wake you up,” said Amnon Shashua, co-founder and chief technical officer of autonomy supplier Mobileye NV, which is providing Level 3 systems to Audi, BMW, Honda and others. “You know, waking up for 30 seconds is quite a long time.”
That’s not how Hakan Samuelsson sees it. A person at rest or distracted by email or entertainment can’t be expected to quickly take the wheel and save the day, according to the Volvo Cars CEO.
“We don’t believe in five seconds, 10 seconds,” Samuelsson said. “It could even be dangerous. If you are doing something else, research shows that it will take two minutes or more before you can come back and take over. And that’s absolutely impossible. That really rules out Level 3.”
Volvo will deploy a self-driving system in 2020 that won’t require human intervention.
Legal liability could be driving most automakers to put the wheel in the driver’s hands in an emergency, said Joe Vitale, global automotive leader for consultant Deloitte.
“With a vehicle crash when it’s operating in Level 3, I’m sure manufacturers will believe the consumer is responsible because they have their hands on the wheel and they’ve been alerted,” Vitale said. “But I don’t think regulators are going to easily turn over on that issue.”
Volvo has pledged it will accept responsibility for any crashes by its self-driving vehicles. Samuelsson said Level 3 could create confusion over who is legally liable for a crash.
“It should be black and white,” Samuelsson said.
“With responsibility, you cannot tell anybody you are a bit responsible. Either you are responsible or you are not.”