As a lot as I’m a information junkie, I do attempt to disconnect a bit on weekends. Yet, this previous Sunday, I had an hour to kill and a smartphone by my aspect, so I perused the headlines of our main newspapers.
I wanted a break from the limitless dialogue concerning the Supreme Court’s newest determination — concern not, pricey reader, as I’ll save my ideas on that for a extra acceptable outlet — and I noticed that The Washington Post’s editorial board had weighed in on the issues with autonomous driving.
Here’s the headline, for these too lazy to click on by: “The problem with self-driving cars? Many don’t drive themselves.”
And the lede paragraph: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report this month on crashes involving vehicles with automated technology. Self-driving cars may not really be the problem — the problem is cars that don’t drive themselves but manage to convince the drivers that they do.”
Here, The Post dives into a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) report about crashes involving autonomous driving.
The op-ed factors out two issues that almost all automotive journalists have been figuratively screaming from the rooftops for half a decade (or extra) now. One — automated-driving techniques have flaws. Two — drivers generally rely an excessive amount of on partial autonomous techniques. I additionally respect the article calling out Tesla, nevertheless mildly, for its deceptive use of the time period “Autopilot”.
It concludes with a reminder that even when NHTSA comes up with laws to enhance the tech, that it’s as much as drivers to keep in mind that in the end they must be those in management.
Thank you, WaPo.
I’m heartened that one of many nation’s Big Four (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, USA Today) newspapers gave part of its opinion web page — and the load of its editorial board, for no matter that’s price* — to a subject that’s close to and pricey to the center of automotive fanatics and trade observers but in addition impacts almost everybody. But I’m additionally dismayed — the overall/mainstream press ought to’ve most likely tackled this topic sooner.
*And that worth might be decided by every particular person reader, since a few of us give extra weight to editorial boards than others, and even that may fluctuate by outlet.
It’s comprehensible to an extent — automotive sections have been decimated at most newspapers, because of quite a lot of components, most of which pertain to the shaky (and generally, insanely silly) economics of the media enterprise. Once upon a time, your native paper would have an auto critic who’d write a overview every week and perhaps a pair information/function tales — a critic who might inform his/her readers about this matters. At the very least, a wire service story is perhaps picked up.
Now, although, the mainstream media all the time appears a step gradual with regards to following developments within the automotive trade, until they make information for the enterprise part — or until Elon Musk has carried out one thing attention-grabbing once more.
To be honest, it might not be all dangerous — I do see loads of information protection on this matter in main shops like WaPo, not less than anecdotally. And it’s all the time attainable there have been related op-eds I’ve missed — I don’t have the time to learn each article produced on the topic. That mentioned, it’s good to see individuals with an influentional platform reminding the general public that it doesn’t matter what kind of autonomous-driving tech or advanced-driving aids (ADAS) their automobile has, they want to concentrate and drive.
TTAC has attain, however we don’t have WaPo attain.
I’m no Luddite. I’m not, in prinicple, essentially against autonomous driving or ADAS options. But I do consider that true autonomous driving — ie, Level 5 — is a great distance off. I additionally consider that even in at the moment’s vehicles, that are stuffed with issues like automated emergency braking techniques and blind-spot monitoring warnings, the driving force is in the end in management. Autonomous tech and ADAS might be useful in the best circumstances, however the driver should, in the end, drive.
So it’s good to see a significant media outlet put the message on the market.
I’m much less optimistic that the general public will get the message. Just yesterday, I handed a driver on the Eisenhower Expressway who was driving too gradual and weaving. I believed he is perhaps drunk, and whereas that’s definitely attainable, I might see he was paying extra consideration to his cellphone than his process as I manuevered round him.
If we will’t get drivers to cease texting, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get them to not be overly reliant on forward-collision warning.
But the extra that media shops with big platforms push the message of duty, the higher.
[Image: Nicole Glass Photography/Shutterstock.com]
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Source: www.thetruthaboutcars.com