Putting The Brakes On Autonomous Cars

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An autonomous, or self-driving, car is still a ways off. And a vehicle that flies people around town and then folds into an easily-carried briefcase wasn't even a topic of discussion.

The well-publicized unmanned car from Google notwithstanding, Bryan Reimer of MIT cast a variety of doubts on a totally self-driving car. Reimer, who has a doctorate in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, is a research engineer at MIT's AgeLab and the associate director of the New England University Transportation Center.

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Contrary to the popular belief that an autonomous vehicle would require less driver training, Reimer notes that automation actually increases the need for education, as there will be times when the automation system needs human intervention.

It's unknown how the machine will decide it needs human intervention, and perhaps more importantly, how skilled will the driver be when taking over? If automation reduces the amount of time a person drives, an unavoidable conclusion is that this person will be less practiced and less skilled when forced to take the wheel.

That's already happened to airline pilots. The reliance on sophisticated automatic pilot systems means some pilots are forgetting how to fly, according to Rory Kay, an airline pilot and co-chair of a Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee on pilot training. If highly trained and motivated pilots fall victim to this problem, how are less trained and less motivated drivers going to manage an emergency? Reimer cited a study showing that humans do not monitor autonomous systems well, and his conclusion was simple: The fully automated car is not coming within our lifetime.

If not fully autonomous vehicles, then what? Tom Baloga, vice president of engineering at BMW, suggested that we are heading for "highly automated driving" with devices that can make a good driver even better. These systems, using highly sophisticated sensors, are already available on many technology-laden luxury cars. They are capable of monitoring traffic all around the vehicle, something we're unable to do. At night, other systems can read the road ahead, spotting pedestrians and animals well before they're illuminated by our headlights.

Dr. Nady Boules, director of General Motor's Electrical & Controls Integration Research Laboratory shared a different perspective. "GM believes autonomous cars are in our future," he says.

With the total number of vehicles worldwide pushing one billion, Boules alludes to a litany of significant challenges, including energy, emissions, safety, congestion and affordability. These overlap a coming trend that will see our transportation switch from internal combustion engines relying on fossil fuels to electric motors, powered in some cases by hydrogen.

Autonomous cars would be expensive, as would the systems that eliminate crashes. However, once up and running, these would offset several expenses. Boules suggests a reduced need for crash protection systems would cut costs and vehicle weight. Additional savings would come from mitigating congestion. Still, don't plan on reading the paper or sleeping as you drive to your destination. Jonathan How, the Richard Cockburn MacLaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, notes that if a human has to be ready to step in and take over, that means that he or she must keep eyes on the road. There are also huge problems to be overcome, including dealing with all-weather issues, being ready for the nominal and off-nominal behavior of other road users and pedestrians, the safety of software and regulatory issues. "We're well on our way, but we have quite a bit further to go," he says.

