Autonomous Vehicle makers are using Children as Guinea pigs
Autonomous Vehicle makers are using Children as Guinea pigs
https://www.curbed.com/2018/9/19/17877120/autonomous-school-shuttles-transdev-babock-ranch
First let me say that I support bringing this technology to market as soon and as safely as possible. And I believe most of those involved mean well and are working hard trying to do so. The problem is that right now neither of those is happening. Not even remotely.
Having said that. Let me be perfectly clear about this.
EasyMile or any AV maker using children as Guinea pigs to develop self-driving vehicles is negligent and completely unnecessary. This is a PR stunt. It is hype that is meant to build false confidence and sets a dangerous precedent. (In this crazy hype driven race to be first I bet someone tries to top it tomorrow.) There is absolutely no value added, or responsible reason to use children or anyone for that matter as Guinea pigs. The reason for that is the process of using public shadow or “safety” drivers can never come remotely close to producing an autonomous vehicle. This means that not only will the lives that would have been saved be lost but we will take many lives for no reason using a fruitless process trying. Elaine Herzberg, Walter Huang, Goa Yaning, and Joshua Browning should not have died. Their deaths served no higher purpose, was not an ends or a means, a necessary evil etc. (The critical part of shadow driving being where the driver cedes steering control to the AI so it can be tested. When it makes a mistake or doesn’t know what to do the driver takes over.)
· The trillion miles needed to drive and redrive the massive number of scenarios cannot be driven
· $300B to do so cannot be spent
· The public, governments, the press etc will never allow these companies to drive/redrive thousands of accident scenarios causing thousands of injuries and deaths once they realize that is what needs to happen
· A shadow or “safety driver” cannot regain proper situational awareness in most critical/accident scenarios no matter what monitoring and notification system is used. The 6–45 seconds cannot be provided to assess the situation and take the right action. Ford’s professional drivers fell asleep. The DoT and NHTSA on wrong side of this due to fatally flawed 2015 study on handover that said it could be safe but refused to look at situational awareness issues. Robert Molloy, head of NTSB Office of Highway Safety, who conducts all accident investigations, admitted to me in front of an audience that handover cannot be made safe in critical scenarios and that most shadow driving should be done in simulation. Chris Urmson, Ford, Volvo, Toyota and Waymo have all said this practice is dangerous. (And yes, they all still do it.)
The most important question is what has been tested? What scenarios have been fully learned? What scenarios should be learned? Not only regarding driving but testing for AI confusion or misperception, bad weather, cybersecurity and reliability. And have those test scenarios been made public? Have the relevant officials seen them? The parents? Insurers?
Finally — the right way to do this is to use test tracks and aerospace/DoD/FAA level simulation and processes 99% of the time. There should be a progression from simulation, to test tracks, to limited public use etc. And when that is done the use of humans, especially those in the public, should be last, especially children.
My Background
My name is Michael DeKort. I am a former systems engineer, engineering and program manager for Lockheed Martin. I worked in aircraft simulation, the software engineering manager for all of NORAD, the Aegis Weapon System, and on C4ISR for DHS. I also worked in Commercial IT and in Cybersecurity.
I received the IEEE Barus Ethics Award for whistleblowing regarding the DHS Deepwater program post 9/11 — http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4468728
I am also a member of the SAE On-Road Autonomous Driving Validation & Verification Task Force
For more information please see some of my other articles
Impediments to Creating an Autonomous Vehicle
Autonomous Levels 4 and 5 will never be reached without Simulation vs Public Shadow Driving for AI — (Key links to data supporting my POV can be found here)
Autonomous Vehicle Maker Consolidation, Bankruptcies and Negligence Lawsuits are Coming
DoT, NHTSA and NTSB are Enabling Autonomous Vehicle Tragedies
Elon Musk is the Pied Piper of Autonomous Vehicles
