UK government gives Automated Lane Keeping Systems the green light for use on motorways
- Reference: 1619638507
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/28/uk_automated_lane_keeping/
- Source link:
The Department for Transport claimed that the technology could improve road safety by reducing human error, which contributes to over 85 per cent of accidents. "The driver will be able to hand control over to the vehicle, which will constantly monitor speed and keep a safe distance from other cars," it said.
Self-driving technology in cars, buses, and delivery vehicles "could spark the beginning of the end of urban congestion, with traffic lights and vehicles speaking to each other to keep traffic flowing, reducing emissions and improving air quality in our towns and cities," DfT said.
[1]
The technology could create around 38,000 new jobs in a UK industry that could be worth £42bn by 2035, the department added.
Yet Whitehall's enthusiasm for the technology flies in the face of evidence that it is impractical, unsafe, and undesirable.
For a start, [2]Thatcham Research said last autumn that the plan could "put road users' lives at risk" because the current technology has "significant performance limitations."
It listed instances where a driver would behave differently to the system, such as slowing well in advance or making an evasive lane-changing manoeuvre to avoid debris or pedestrians encroaching on the carriageway after a breakdown. Its assumption was that the system would be applied at 70mph, perhaps explaining the reason the government was looking to limit it to much lower speeds.
While truly self-driving cars are surely just around the corner, for now here's an AI early-warning system for your semi-autonomous ride [3]READ MORE
Meanwhile, the broader implementation of self-driving technology faces psychological barriers, according to a 2017 paper from [4]Nature Human Behaviour .
It listed dilemmas around autonomous ethics as the first among concerns. While humans like the idea of operating under utilitarian principles, they, surprisingly enough, would prefer vehicles that prioritise their own lives as passengers as opposed to those outside.
Then there are risk heuristics and algorithmic aversion, that the novel nature of autonomous vehicles will result in an over-reaction to the inevitable accidents. Lastly, asymmetric information and the theory of the machine mind means that the lack of understanding of the underlying decision-making processes in autonomous vehicles could make it difficult for people to trust them, the researchers said.
[5]
The Register has long voiced reasonable concerns that the thrust toward self-driving technology is driven more by investors, manufacturers, and governments trying to cling on to the next hype cycle rather than a desire to offer anything of significant benefit. Incremental technology developments will not in themselves overcome these problems.
In 2018, [6]we interviewed Christian Wolmar , author and broadcaster, who described what he calls the Holborn problem. It says that if self-driving cars are too safe, they should come to a halt as pedestrians enter the road space. But in places like London's Holborn Underground station at rush hour, people spill over the road en masse in a completely ad-hoc fashion, putting self-driving vehicles at a standstill for hours.
While US authorities have sought to separate cars and pedestrians, in Europe they see safety increasing by mixing the two groups through concepts such as shared space, [7]although debate still rages about that idea .
Even the most enthusiastic promoters of self-driving technology seem to have lost their appetite for it. [8]It was mooted that Uber's profitability would be dependent on self-driving vehicles only for the taxi-hailing app company to [9]sell off its own efforts to develop the technology .
[10]
Maybe Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is not best placed to get self-driving technology in gear, famous as it is for [11]its screeching U-turns . ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YIna91wA-KlsAP-6Vy-x4AAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/automated-lane-keeping-uk-2021-will-put-lives-risk
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/01/autonomous_vehicles_accidents/
[4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319630815_Psychological_roadblocks_to_the_adoption_of_self-driving_vehicles
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YIna91wA-KlsAP-6Vy-x4AAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/11/christian_wolmar_interview_self_driving_cars/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space#:~:text=The%20goal%20of%20shared%20space,areas%20between%20different%20road%20users
[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/28/ubers-self-driving-cars-are-a-key-to-its-path-to-profitability.html
[9] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55224462
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YIna91wA-KlsAP-6Vy-x4AAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/10/boris-johnson-year-of-u-turns
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Idiocy
This will do more to set back road safety than smart motorways.
Folly
What could possibly go wrong? Bound to be idiots who take Tesla's "auto-pilot" and/or similar at face value and expect full auto self-driving (as has been documented, complete with fatal crashes across the pond). Got to be ALL self-driving cars on the road, that can "talk" to each other and not the mash-up of manual and semi-auto that seems to be emerging at the moment.
The technology could create around 38,000 new jobs...
... in a UK industry that could be worth £42bn by 2035, the department added.
"Could" is a versatile word. In this case it means, "Everything you read after this is totally made up."
Re: The technology could create around 38,000 new jobs...
£42bn - IIRC, that was around the figure quoted for HS2 at one point
Naysayer
Personally I don't think fully autonomous vehicles will ever cope with crowded city driving in the UK. They might have a chance in a city with a grid layout, or when every road has helpful beacons every few metres but I'm not confident. When a bus breaks down during rush hour and you have to risk poking the nose of your car out into the opposite lane, so you can see oncoming traffic, what would an AI make of that. Do I want an algorithm taking that risk with my life?
If autonomous vehicles reduced deaths on the road by 90%, that remaining 10% have families who know that a computer killed their loved ones. Can they jail the algorithm for dangerous driving? I don't trust this government but they might be right that 'smart' motorways are safer but it doesn't matter. Each accident, due to the lack of a hard shoulder, is heavily publicised in the media and the court of public opinion have ruled them dangerous and unwanted. Every minor incident with a self-driving car will be front page news.
I love technology but I don't want a self-driving car. I like driving and I can't put the lives of me and my passengers in the hands of a computer (even Notepad crashes sometimes). I don't even want an automatic gearbox, like the majority of people in the UK (UK 60% manual, US 3% stick). I will be upset when there is no longer any manual gearbox cars for sale but I'll probably suck it up. I'll never buy, or ride in, a car without a steering wheel. I do see that a driverless car would be life-changing for disabled or infirm people though
They say it won't be long until a hacker actually kills someone. That seems a lot more likely if we sit in computers moving at 70.
UK Transport Minister
Take away his chauffeur driven limousine and replace with an automated vehicle. He can can work on government papers whilst the vehicle drives him from A to B.
If the vehicle crashes/causes an accident, then he'll have first hand knowledge of the limitations
Biting the hand of reasonability
"The Register has long voiced reasonable concerns that the thrust toward self-driving technology is driven more by investors, manufacturers, and governments trying to cling on to the next hype cycle rather than a desire to offer anything of significant benefit. Incremental technology developments will not in themselves overcome these problems.'
Unlike an O.S. released into the wild...where nobody gets killed when things go wrong (mostly... I can't wait for all the forthcoming examples
Perhaps : Technology, by and for humanity. (not vice-versa)
jobs created...bah
Think of all of the auto body shops that are going to go out of business because the accident rate plummets. Think of all of the new cars that won't have to be purchased because of that same lower accident rate. Someone needs a class in economics.
37MPH
That's twice as fast as the M25..... Cool