Read on Twitter
Let's get into this. Will it make roads safer? Is it actually about self-driving cars? Is it all hype? https://twitter.com/transportgovuk/status/1387312111441911809
The Minister wants this to be about science and innovation. It's actually a story about regulation. (Although regulation can spur innovation, let's remember) https://twitter.com/redditchrachel/status/1387327344201900034
@reedmobility did a great job on the Today programme explaining the details. It's actually about Automated Lane-Keeping. @MishalHusain asked the right questions. Does this tech count as a self-driving car? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000vh44 (53 mins in)
It's "conditional automation". The conditions that make it work are not just particular roads (motorways) and particular speeds (low ones), but also a driver who is monitoring the system.
We know that being a human in-the-loop and on-the-loop makes life harder rather than easier. It increases a driver's responsibilities, even though the talk here is about the machine being responsible in the event of a crash. Handovers are hard.
The good people at @ThatchamRsrch are right. New rules create new requirements. How can systems find "safe harbour" when things go wrong? How can regulators access data to learn from crashes? https://twitter.com/ThatchamRsrch/status/1387187631054893056
Engineers might claim that these conditions mean this is not "self-driving" or "fully autonomous". My conclusion? "Self-driving" will always be conditional. Levels of automation (is this Level 2+? Level3?) don't provide a good guide to the future https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9199318
The Government claims that "The technology could improve road safety by reducing human error, which contributes to over 85% of accidents.” Later in the press release they make the mistake of saying human error is the CAUSE of most crashes https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-paves-the-way-for-self-driving-vehicles-on-uk-roads
Motorways are relatively safe places. Highly regulated, closed to other road users. In 2019, motorways had 20% of miles travelled but only 6% of road deaths https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/922717/reported-road-casualties-annual-report-2019.pdf
Meanwhile, in the US, plenty of people are using their Teslas as if they were self-driving cars. Deaths from autopilot have mostly been the people inside the cars, rather than bystanders. But it's a regulatory mess https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2937316
