Auto pilot by Ian Mclaren

Fully autonomous motoring? It’s a safety net rather than a chau eur

THERE’S something particularly alluring about the photography accompanying the Volvo Car Corporation’s recent press announcements. The reason is a combination of spectacular scenery and architecture afforded by its mother country, together with the easy-going demeanour of that nation’s generally attractive population driving, in this instance, any one of the beautifully crafted current-generation Volvos. Like the cover of a monthly travel magazine, you get the sense that, as much as Volvo would like you to notice its new cars, it always wants to place you, the customer, into the scene. If, even for a moment, you can imagine yourself behind the wheel, snug in your ne-wool cardigan, navigating a single-lane bridge between Nordic islands.

One such wish-you-were-here image shown at the recent launch of the new XC60 (see page 30), however, left me feeling anything but envious. Sure, in the moment I coveted the chiselled jawline and magni cent mane of the male model in the photo, but no part of me longed to be likewise reclined, legs folded while reading a magazine behind the steering wheel of a fast-moving vehicle. This, it would seem, is the vision for a fully autonomous future of private transportation.

I’m not sure what unsettled me most about this particular image. The fact that, aside from CAR obviously, no-one reads magazines anymore, or the Zen master-like calmness displayed by the “driver” who clearly entrusted his entire being to the broad workings of a computer programme.

It’s certainly no fault of Volvo which, through the development of similar such programmes, plans to keep every one of its customers safe from harm. Perhaps it’s also an indictment on the generally appalling Western Cape driving I witness on a daily basis, but I think I’d prefer to keep my hands on the wheel and feet in control of the pedals a little while longer, thank you.

While I admire the rationale behind developing vehicles that can, at the very least, intuitively maintain a safe following distance to the vehicle ahead of you or, as many of the latest systems are capable of, hold course within painted lane markings, I don’t buy the marketing line that this tech adds a sense of relaxation to the driving experience. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Even while testing Volvo’s impressive Pilot Assist system on the open, owing motorways round Barcelona, and even with this particular radar-based lane-keeping tech working seamlessly, at no point during my drive did my mind rest easy. It would take just a single glitch in the matrix or, indeed, one misplaced glare of sunlight to have me headed for a Spanish emergency room. Even with the lane-keeping system performing optimally, at this stage of development, it needs reminders of where the road marking are. This translates to minor, yet unnerving, mid-corner straightening movements even while negotiating constant-radius bends in the road. No, thank you.

At this juncture in our road to autonomous driving, high-volume manufac- turers such as Volvo are comfortable with the fact that they offer semi-autonomous, or driver-in-the-loop, mobility, meaning the onus remains on the driver to keep light grip on the steering wheel and a watchful eye on proceedings. For me, if I need to keep my hands on the wheel, I may as well be doing the steering, pre-empting a situation rather than subconsciously anticipating an “intervention”.

Of course, an area in which these technologies are increasingly proving their worth, and further to Volvo’s broader vision, is the active safety systems linked to them. Statistics will undoubtedly prove that tech such as collision avoidance and emergency-braking assistance is saving lives. In cases like these, where the vehicle detects that the driver has lost control or is in imminent danger, quick-thinking and seamless overrides remain the only true bene t to having a computer taking control of a car’s functions.

Nevertheless, as the development of fully autonomous cars continues at a rapid rate, I remain convinced that the only scenario where these systems could ever actually deliver on their promise of affording owners the luxury of completely switching off from their surroundings is one in which every other vehicle on the road is operating under the same set of parameters. In other words, no impulsive human being is permitted to intervene in proceedings. Certainly, until that time, there’s very little chance that I won’t constantly scan my surroundings, anticipating stupidity.

Besides, and despite the South African Government’s best efforts to collapse ours, there already exists a global system of autonomous transportation that allows its users the opportunity to kick back, relax and read whichever form of certainly soon-to-be-extinct print they choose. It’s called a train.