Safety in the Age of Automation

One of the very first things I learned when I started my journey towards driving was that every other person on the road was a human and thus they could make mistakes, mistakes that could put me in danger. I was told to drive as if every other person on the road could kill you – and sometimes it certainly felt like that was the case. This has been the case since the beginning of cars themselves, it has always been other humans behind the wheel. However, we are reaching a revolution in technology and its implementation into cars and society as a whole. Self-driving and autonomous vehicles are emerging and becoming a quick reality. With the responsibility of driving transferred to programs and artificial intelligence, it may seem as if we can step back and let our guards down. However, now it is just as important as ever to practice and maintain safe-driving techniques and strategies.

To understand why we must maintain safe-driving practices even with autonomous vehicles it is important to first understand what makes a vehicle autonomous. For a car, there are six levels to how advanced its self-driving capabilities can be. At Level 0, there is no way for the car itself to control inputs. It may have sensors to warn the driver but it can’t do anything to avoid obstacles or maintain lane position. Lane-keeping systems enter at Level 1, where there are very limited inputs the car can make to itself. Level 2 is where systems within the car begin to influence each other. An example here would be adaptive cruise control, where the car is able to maintain a distance from the car in front of it while also keeping a steady lane position. As of now, Level 2 is the highest level of autonomy that commercial cars have reached, including Tesla. In the near future, Level 3 cars should begin to appear, where the car can fully drive itself and follow a course allowing the driver to rest and focus on other things. At Level 4, the driver is not needed and certain inputs like pedals or steering wheels may not exist. The car can fully drive itself along set paths. Level 5 is currently only theoretical and would not require any driver inputs at all, cars would be able to function on any road completely independently. With how fast technology is able to develop it is not ridiculous to expect Level 3 cars to become the norm within the next few decades and even for Level 4 to become available, meaning the reality of driving along with automated cars is something we must consider.

Whether you are riding in a self-driving car or sharing the road with one it is crucial to maintain safe driving practices. As the driver of a self-driving car you must remain focused and aware of what is around the car and how the car is driving. Just as with the humans that designed the program, no self-driving car is going to be perfect and there are going to be mistakes and errors. Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” program is a perfect warning to the fallibility of driving systems. Spring of 2023, more than 300,000 Tesla vehicles were recalled due to unsafe driving habits of the FSD program including disregarding stop signs, not taking caution at intersections, and ignoring train tracks in cities. Problems arise with how much information the car is able to take in and process on its own compared to a human.

To recognize the dangers of a poorly designed self-driving program, consider a recent incident I was involved in: I was driving and we were reaching a nearby stoplight when the cars in front suddenly and harshly braked. They had been driving too close and had to come to a stop quickly. I was making a turn at the light so I was out of the way but cars behind me had also been riding too close and didn’t have as much time to prepare. In order to escape a certain collision, a pickup truck driver resorted to swerving off the road, all while maintaining control of their vehicle off the road. Luckily, there was no accident but there very well may have been if not for some quick evasive driving. If an automated car had been in this situation it would not have been able to pull off the same quick and creative thinking as the truck driver. It might have had better awareness and distance in front, but it would still have to base its braking on the car in front, and if it solely relied on slamming on the brakes there is a risk of being hit from behind. Unless every car on the road is automated there are going to be risky situations where a self-driving car will not be able to find an escape that a human driver could. Thus the responsibility still remains on the driver to ensure there is no damage done. As always, drivers will need to closely monitor the road for intersections, stops, pedestrian crossings, and lane changes while keeping track of neighboring vehicles and pedestrians.

While sharing the road with automated cars it is important to remain focused and aware of any and all cars that surround you and be ready for any sudden or unexpected changes in driving behavior. The self-driving car might make a mistake and drive improperly causing the driver to take over and correct, by paying attention to these types of changes in driving accidents and thus deaths can be prevented.

As cars change, so too must our driving education change to place an importance on maintaining control of self-driving vehicles while also reinforcing defensive driving so as to prevent accidents between self-driving and regular cars. This collaboration between drivers and their different cars will ensure that accidents and deaths can be avoided and decreased in the new Age of Automation.