Source: Drivers quickly learn to skirt limits set by partial automation systems
Bob Wilson
. . .
In the second study, a different group of IIHS and AgeLab researchers examined how the driving behavior of 14 people who had never used Tesla’s Autopilot or any other partial automation system changed over a month of driving a 2020 Tesla Model 3. Unlike the Volvo study, this one focused on how often the drivers triggered the system’s initial attention reminders, escalated warnings and emergency slowdown and lockout procedures.
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In total, the volunteers drove a little more than 12,000 miles with Autopilot engaged. During that time, they triggered 3,858 attention-related warnings from the partial automation system. About half of those alerts occurred when they had at least one hand on the steering wheel but were apparently not moving it enough to satisfy the torque sensor.
Most warnings didn’t proceed beyond the initial attention reminder, and, on average, the drivers responded to the alert within about three seconds (usually by nudging the steering wheel). In 72 instances, however, the driver didn’t respond fast enough to prevent the alerts from escalating. Remarkably, 16 of these escalations — 12 of them from one driver and four from three others — persisted through the entire sequence to result in the driver being locked out of the system.
. . .
In the second study, a different group of IIHS and AgeLab researchers examined how the driving behavior of 14 people who had never used Tesla’s Autopilot or any other partial automation system changed over a month of driving a 2020 Tesla Model 3. Unlike the Volvo study, this one focused on how often the drivers triggered the system’s initial attention reminders, escalated warnings and emergency slowdown and lockout procedures.
. . .
In total, the volunteers drove a little more than 12,000 miles with Autopilot engaged. During that time, they triggered 3,858 attention-related warnings from the partial automation system. About half of those alerts occurred when they had at least one hand on the steering wheel but were apparently not moving it enough to satisfy the torque sensor.
Most warnings didn’t proceed beyond the initial attention reminder, and, on average, the drivers responded to the alert within about three seconds (usually by nudging the steering wheel). In 72 instances, however, the driver didn’t respond fast enough to prevent the alerts from escalating. Remarkably, 16 of these escalations — 12 of them from one driver and four from three others — persisted through the entire sequence to result in the driver being locked out of the system.
. . .
Bob Wilson