Maybe it's early days yet, but I'm not comfortable with the approach taken by Tesla. Either give the car full control, or else the operator must be in full control with the technology playing an assistive role. I cannot be expected to sit doing nothing behind the wheel for hours and then suddenly be called upon to take over the driving in a split second.
Obviously for the former option Tesla is not there quite yet (and that is an understatement), but I wonder if better sensor tech will not help here. Sensor tech is reasonably robust; thus, for example, even if the autopilot is no longer able to properly make out the markings on the road, a sensor override should be able to determine (using radar?) the locations of nearby vehicles within say a 100 meter radius, thus ensuring collisions are avoided, and give the human driver several second or even a minute to take over.
No wonder this [1] effort from Volvo focuses on, among other this, Radar tech. I think that is a core tech for the success of self-driving cars
Obviously for the former option Tesla is not there quite yet (and that is an understatement), but I wonder if better sensor tech will not help here. Sensor tech is reasonably robust; thus, for example, even if the autopilot is no longer able to properly make out the markings on the road, a sensor override should be able to determine (using radar?) the locations of nearby vehicles within say a 100 meter radius, thus ensuring collisions are avoided, and give the human driver several second or even a minute to take over.
No wonder this [1] effort from Volvo focuses on, among other this, Radar tech. I think that is a core tech for the success of self-driving cars
[1] http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self...