The Tesla Autopilot system permits drivers to remove their hands from the wheel, but it prompts them to regain control after a brief period. It will also warn a driver to retake control in certain situations.
The Tesla performed well in freeway driving, and the company recently fixed a bug that had caused the car to unexpectedly veer off onto freeway exits. However, on city streets and country roads, Autopilot’s performance could be described as hair-raising. The car, which uses only a camera to track the roadway by identifying lane markers, did not follow the curves smoothly. It also did not slow down when approaching turns.
On a recent 220-mile drive to Lake Tahoe from Palo Alto, Calif., Dr. Thrun said he had to intervene more than a dozen times.
The company said that on Jan. 9, it introduced a new version of the Autopilot software that offered both restrictions and improvements in handling.
Like the Tesla, the new autonomous Nissan models will still require human oversight and will not drive autonomously in all conditions. Nissan’s engineers acknowledged that even their most advanced models would not be autonomous in every situation, including snow, heavy rain and even some nighttime driving.
“There are certain limitations depending on the condition of the weather. For example, if you are in heavy snow or rain, it is impossible to have autonomous driving,” said Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Renault-Nissan’s executive vice president for technology development. “We should make sure the vehicle recognizes it and gives a caution to the driver.”
The situation is further complicated by laws and regulations that require cars to be controlled by humans. In Europe, the 1968 Vienna Convention required that “every moving vehicle or combination of vehicles shall have a driver,” and “every driver shall at all times be able to control his vehicle.” Although an amendment has been proposed, no new legislation is yet in place.
In the United States, Google began an extensive lobbying campaign with individual states in 2011. But the company acknowledged a setback last year when the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued draft regulations that required a human driver capable of controlling the car to be in the vehicle.
None of that has discouraged some enthusiastic Tesla owners. Doug Carmean, a Microsoft computer designer who commutes daily between Seattle and Redmond, Wash., said he had encountered the Tesla Autopilot offramp bug and found it “scary.”
Yet as much as 45 minutes of his commute each day is in slow, stop-and-go traffic, and his car will effortlessly and predictably follow the car ahead, permitting him to surf the web on the Tesla’s giant display.
“Even though it has these frightening movements, I’ve come to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a sense of awe and pleasure.”
Article Appeared @http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/technology/driverless-cars-limits-include-human-nature.html?_r=0