Drivers are often distracted from the road when using partial autopilot, study shows

As you know, modern cars do not have full autopilot, no matter how Tesla tries to convince us otherwise, and they are capable of performing only part of the tasks on their own, but the driver clearly should not be distracted from the road. This does not prevent users of these types of systems from neglecting safety rules, as the IIHS study found.

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, whose activities are funded by participants in the American insurance market, analyzed the behavior of users of two active driver assistance systems supplied in Tesla (Autopilot) and Volvo (Pilot Assist), respectively, over a month. The researchers came to the conclusion that when using such systems, drivers quickly begin to neglect safety rules and formally approach the requirements set by the developers of such systems. For example, if the driver is required to touch the steering wheel once every few seconds, then he will do this without much concentration on the road situation, simply to lull the vigilance of the automation that controls him.

Drivers quickly adapt to the limitations provided by the developers of autopilot systems in order to engage in activities that distract them from the road during the trip. Systems that partially automate the process of driving vehicles, according to the authors of the study, need more careful development of conditions that prevent their incorrect and dangerous use. In the case of Tesla, the study involved tracking 14 users who traveled a total of more than 19,300 km with Autopilot activated, and the alert was used 3,858 times throughout the experiment. On average, drivers responded to these signals within three seconds, usually applying some effort to the steering wheel to avoid aggravating complaints from the automation.

In the Volvo case, 29 drivers were monitored and were distracted 30% of the time while the Pilot Assist system was operating. The authors of the study considered this figure to be “excessively high.” An earlier IIHS survey conducted among 600 drivers found that respondents were overly confident in the reliability of automation in 53% of cases, based on users of GM on-board systems. Among drivers of Tesla cars, the figure reached 42%, while among Nissan drivers it did not exceed 12%. The authors of the study then expressed the opinion that most drivers poorly understand the boundaries of the safe use of new technologies.