There was an article on the BBC recently that said “But the driver will need to stay alert and be able take over when requested by the system within 10 seconds.”
Probably as long as you have taken to reach this point in the article!! See not very long.
I am curious though as why they think a human is best placed to rectify a crisis in 10 seconds rather a million pound fully programmed computer driving the driverless car.
For example you are on a long trip and all of a sudden the driverless car announces “Driver take over process completed” , what are your reactions most likely to be:-
1- Oh shit you can’t be serious
2- Lets tap the screens to try and override the command
3- What am I about to hit – “oh my god”
4- Am I about to die? “oh my god”
5- Where am I ?
6- How fast am I going
7- Can I jump
8- “Computer take over control of the car”
9- Bang the dashboard shouting “f’ing computer I am going to die”
10 – Crash
The reality is that if a high tech computer on board a driverless car can’t get you out of a crash situation in less than 10 seconds then unless you have Formula 1 driving reactions then you are pretty well screwed.
It then got me thinking under what circumstances would the computer handover controls back to a human. The computer would need to have these circumstances pre-programmed in. Image some poor programmer arriving at work one morning to be told today you must think and program in scenarios where the computer hands control back to its human driver, surely the whole point of the computer is to be in control all the time and for this to never happen.
If the circumstance was mechanical or tyres bursting then the driverless car should be able to get the car to the side of the road easily especially if the car is using run flat tyres.
What if the the computer packs up, the last thing the driver ironically might see is the infamous “Blue screen of death” . If the computer did pack up then the driver take over message might not be given or be the very last command it gives.
Alternatively the said programmer might be precious about the car they are working on and might have built in a function whereby if someone in the car complains too much about it en-route i.e. “useless car it should have take Junction 32 not this stupid route” the car finally cracks and shuts down passing control over to its more knowledgeable back seat driver.
The question is also what happens if you and the car survive after the 10 seconds, does the car re-boot itself and then play a sort of congratulatory fanfare with confetti raining down from the roof and start driving itself agin.
So how should you spend the 10 seconds you have, the internet has various things you can do in 10 seconds:-
1- Do all kinds of mental maths – So can sit there working out- so a car travelling 60 mph, driver applies breaks and object 200 metres away at what force am I likely to hit said object and what percentage of the car will be crushed on impact. At least you will have a better idea of your odds of survival
2- You can tie a tie, tie your shoelaces or even wash your face, after all you don’t want to look a slob as they extract you from the broken remains of your driverless car.
3- It also says there are ways to cure hiccups in under 10 seconds I reckon the sight of the impending object you are about to hit getting closer and closer will definitely cure your hiccups.
4- Also you can open a bottle of wine but it doesn’t mention how much of it you can drink of it,so it would be well worth doing some pre 10 second challenges to perfect this!!.
So remember in the future when you are out in your driverless car that should you get the 10 second warning you know how you are best going to use it.
Driverless Cars will never take off 