Why We All Need Autonomous Vehicles ASAP
After only one test drive, a few weeks ago we became the proud owners of a Tesla Model S. Impressed enough, we stumped up and after a 2 month wait, delivery day came on the 31st March.
As advised by the Delivery Specialist, the car was to take ~200 miles to start to come to life. Things like Summon, Autopilot, Auto-Park and the like apparently need to to learn. Just like a child does when new to its environment. we weren’t ones to argue. We would much rather the vehicle fully know its environment than take risks with my families life on the line.
Three weeks and 210 miles pass and suddenly an update becomes available. After eagerly installing it the Autopilot options appear and were quickly enabled. Day 1 of Autopilot involved witnessing the auto-cruise control. Day 2 of Autopilot saw the auto-steer come to life. Day 3 saw the Tesla grind to a halt at a traffic light after following a car for a few miles. Brilliant!
Then we get to Day 4… driving the whole of the M18 / M1 route from my house in Doncaster to Sheffield on Autopilot. The experience is quite simply amazing. But this is not the reason of my post.
The above outlines how the Tesla Model S embarks on a journey to learn its environment and most important, CONTINUALLY LEARN. If I were to correct the auto-steer, the Tesla learns for that specific location that it did wrong
Can the same be said about the every day human driver? Quite simply no!
Cruising down the M1 at 60mph and on distance setting 6 from the driver in front (i.e. quite a decent space back), a van decided to pull in-front of the Tesla. Que the Auto-Pilot to witness a hazard pulling in front and duly hammering the brakes to quickly reduce speed to ~30–40
Who was at fault here? The van? The Tesla? The road? Me? No, it was the human driver in the van
What became immediately apparent is how different the experience would be if ALL cars were on AutoPilot. They would communicate with each other. Everything would be much more predictable. The Tesla would know that the van wanted to enter its line of drive and automatically adjust itself in a gradual manner to allow the van a safer entry. Rather than been forced to take rash action to prevent a potential collision and as a knock on, possibly putting other drivers at risk. Journeys would become safer as there would be no human at the wheel to take spur of the moment actions.
Granted, AutoPilot is by no means complete. But it is this continuous learning journey that is most impressive about the technology. Something which after over 100 years of driving we cannot say the same about us humans.
