AppleInsider:
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has released a letter it received from Apple concerning the “Project Titan” self-driving vehicle project’s disengagement rates, with the letter advising how Apple is collecting data on incidents where a driver takes over for the automated driving system, and why the number is so high.
“Apple’s approach to disengagements is conservative, because our system is not yet designed to operate in all conditions and situations,” writes Apple’s senior director of Autonomous Systems Engineering Jamie Waydo. “To support this approach, our public road testing policies require drivers to proactively take manual control of the vehicle any time the system encounters a scenario beyond our currently proven abilities.”
When I first read this story on Tuesday, I thought there might be something more to it. Turns out, Apple’s high number of “disengagements” is because of an overabundance of caution. Not a bad thing.
I think this is a good approach.
We just leased a 2018 Honda Accord, which has “adaptive cruise control”. I like it a lot, as it follows the vehicle ahead if it’s in my lane and within range of the radar. It brings the car to a full stop if the followed vehicle stops. And I simply tap on the accelerator or click “resume” on the ACC to continue following.
I find it relieves a good amount of leg and foot muscle stress and makes for a more comfortable drive overall.
There are obvious limitations, and it certainly doesn’t relieve me of maintaining separation from other vehicles, pedestrians, obstacles, etc.
I consider ACC a welcome convenience, but I’m always alert to “take over”.
Not a bad thing at all. Let’s all keep track of the analysts who’re trying to ridicule Apple for this level of caution.
I was wary, too, at first. I had my right foot poised over the brake pedal, ready to take over, for the first several hours. But after I let it do its thing numerous times, and under various driving conditions, I learned to trust it.
There are, however, several situations where the system doesn’t work just as you might want:
Following cars through tighter turns, the centrally-aimed radar can un-acquire the followed car.
And when the followed car makes a tight right turn off the street and into a driveway or parking lot, my car brakes too strongly to an almost-stop.
And when you’re driving on ACC and not following anyone, and then approach cars already stopped at an intersection, the system will NOT activate by itself, so you need to brake conventionally.
Other than that, though, I’ve gotten pretty used to the system and really enjoy it.
For example, I was driving on a three-lane road this afternoon, and the traffic was creeping for 15-20 mins approaching an accident scene. It was just inching along, stop and go. But my ACC allowed me to leave my right foot in rest mode all the way.
The bumper-to-bumper is for sure the ideal case for it. Whenever I’m in traffic that bad (which thankfully is not a daily or even weekly thing for me) I’m constantly wondering if I’m giving too much/little gas, and/or braking too softly/too hard. It would be so much better to just turn that over to an AI.
I would love this feature but I’m not sure how long it would take me to trust it. I like more distance between me and the car ahead than most people, so this would probably be well within what I consider the space I’m keeping.
Bumper-to-bumper is definitely a good use case, but high-speed driving is also good, in that you have four following distances to choose from, which distances increase/decrease proportionately with speed. That takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.