For a computer to take over the task of driving for 22 minutes and not have any scary near-misses, crashes, or other hiccups is very impressive! When I went to pick up my phone, one of the two DMS cameras understood what I was doing and prompted me to resume driving within about 20-30 seconds. In Colorado, over the course of a week, I went for a maximum of about 22 minutes without having to intervene in the F-150 Lightning the truck prompted me to take over when, due to a construction zone, the lanes shifted and painted lines became unclear. Though current model year Teslas do have DMS cameras (that Consumer Reports called “inadequate”), the slightly older model I drove had only the torque sensor on the steering wheel. I’ve gone up to 10 minutes handsfree in a Tesla on the highway before being prompted to put my hands on the wheel. Because Tesla has the fewest geographic safeguards, I actually feel the least safe using their system, and would not use it anywhere except a divided freeway. All three of these systems place the ultimate responsibility for the vehicle’s operation on the driver. Tesla does not geofence their system at all, deferring to the user where to activate the system (at their own risk, and the risk to everyone else on the road, of course). GM uses commercial test vehicles to create lidar maps of these roads which are then downloaded by individual vehicles over the air, in order to create the clearest picture of the world. General Motors has mapped out over 200,000 miles of highways, whereas Ford has a bit less, over 130,000 miles of highways, where these systems will work. BlueCruise and SuperCruise are geofenced (or, geographically limited) to certain areas where they are known to be the safest: divided, single-direction highways with clearly marked lanes, and only in clear weather. This is my opinion, based on my experience and the written expertise of others in the space.īlueCruise, SuperCruise, and Autopilot are all based on what is fundamentally the same technology: a combination of cameras and sensors in and around the vehicle can create enough of a picture of the road and the cars on it that the vehicle can perform certain maneuvers under certain circumstances without intervention from the driver. I drove different vehicles on different roads, in different states in order to develop a general picture of the capability of the software, not to develop a controlled testing environment. I think there are several use cases where they would come in handy and improve humanity. I am however certain that, if you can afford a luxury car, and your actual goal was to use your phone, read the news, or do some other task unrelated to driving, while driving, setting up a blanket of “safety” to prop this technology up against would be excellent cover.ĭisclaimers: 1) I am not against the idea of autonomous vehicles. I’ve come away incredibly skeptical that the best way to make our roads safer is to invent a system whereby some cars will drive themselves some of the time. I’ve also spent lots of time with Tesla’s Autopilot, and researched pretty extensively the good and the bad of turning over controls of our vehicles to computers. I’ve used Ford’s BlueCruise in Colorado and Los Angeles and I used Cadillac’s SuperCruise in New York and Connecticut. I’ve spent the past few weeks using the newest “Level 2” Advanced Driver’s Aid Systems (ADAS). Tens of thousands of people die on our roads every year, and so of course we want to stop that from happening, right? And who among us is going to argue for less saferoads, right? I then learned that if you think most driving is boring, try not driving, but also doing nothing else at all, besides being responsible for catching any mistakes, or you might die.īeginning with Tesla’s inappropriately-named “Autopilot” feature in 2014, cars have been inching, slowly, somewhat deceptively, but surely, towards partial autonomy, under the guise of improved safety. After about 20 seconds, the truck, which features a Driver Monitoring System (DMS) flashed a warning on the steering wheel reminding me to pay attention to the road, and I put the phone back down again. I’d just gotten off a long flight and there was a lot of it. Six, maybe seven minutes later of uninterrupted BlueCruis’ing down Interstate 25 south towards Colorado Springs, I grabbed the phone again, and opened my email. I wasn’t using my hands to steer the F-150 Lightning that I’d been lent for my week in Colorado, so what was I supposed to do with them?īut, remembering I’m a professional and a good, attentive driver, I caught myself, put the phone down, and awkwardly rested my hands on my knees like I was being interrogated. It was three minutes into using Ford’s new BlueCruise “handsfree” technology that I reached for my phone to check my messages.
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