Tesla Autopilot Rumble Pack
By now, many of you have heard about the tragic news of someone getting killed in a car crash while the Tesla Autopilot system was engaged. Although there are reports that the driver had a DVD player, or may have been distracted, this story brings up a few interesting problems, and a magical solution.
The problem with self driving cars is that we’re almost there. We’re currently working on the other last mile problem. While roads are generally well-kept, well-marked, and don’t have trucks or other objects in them, sometimes they do.
These are the same kind of situations that surprise people and cause car crashes. Reaction time is the key factor here. If this is a new situation, it may take a fraction of a second to decide if you’re going to accelerate, brake, move out of the way, or some combination of those options. If you aren’t paying attention, you might as well add this on to your reaction time.
Computer are great because we pay them to pay attention. They aren’t easily distracted, although sometimes they become confused, which is already better than most drivers, who are both. For now, drivers and Autopilot need to work together, and rightly so.
Contrary to what Tesla might say, driving on autopilot is nothing new. If you’ve ever driven out in the desert for long stretches of flat road, or through the vast area known as “central” Illinois, you’ll know that these roads are a bore, and there is nothing between them.
You’ll drive along, and be looking from soybeans to your left, to corn on your right, with your knee on the wheel and the cruise control on. You might even fall prey to Highway Hypnosis.
Combating road fatalities is nothing new. We have many strategies, including rest areas, free coffee, and safety zones.
One of the simplest techniques for dealing with a distracted, tired, sleeping driver is the rumble strip. These can be placed over the main road, to alert drivers to slow down or look for oncoming traffic, but are also routinely placed along the edges and center of roads to alert drivers if they are veering into danger.
I think rumble strips are insanely cool, and there’s even some places that have music driving over them!
Rumble strips not only produce sound in the car, but they also vibrate the steering wheel, giving a direct tactile sensation that will wake you up.
With autopilot, there are also new problems that could arise, such as a medical emergency, where someone might not be able to press the brake or disengage the autopilot system. Problems that might not involve looking for the next DVD, texting, or Facebook.
Unlike a normal car, where it would be obvious in at most a minute that no one is in control (with much sadness likely), someone could be driving on autopilot for a lot longer before anyone notices. When this happens, obviously this is not good, and we should slow down and pull over, and possibly alert EMS, possibly avoiding a crash and saving a life.
The crux of the problem is how to detect if the driver is paying attention, and is ready to take control. This problem is really based on two factors:
- Are the driver’s hands on the wheel? Are they physically capable of moving the wheel and basic movement?
- Is the driver actually paying attention? How long would it take for the driver to regain control?
These are somewhat, but not completely related. If you’ve driven around with small children or family, you know your hands can be on the wheel, but you are not paying attention in the slightest.
The solution is right from my childhood: The rumble pak!
We’ve put these in all the controllers these days, and they are basically just offset weights being spun around or bounced. I won’t start on where the technology was before that.
Just plug in a rumble pack to the Tesla steering wheel. Now your car can alert you, the driver, of something in a way that all drivers have become accustomed.
This will send a challenge to the driver from Autopilot: “Are you still aware that you are operating a vehicle that could kill people?”, she asks with a silent rumble from the wheel.
How to respond to your new AI chauffeur? Let her know that you still serve her with a gentle loving squeeze back.
By squeezing on the steering wheel after a short vibration, the car can determine that you are still in active control. Tracking the time between the vibration and the response might also give the car an idea of your current reaction time, and set greater following distances if needed. This also proves that you have the ability to at least grip and move your hands a little, and are not simply slumped over the steering wheel.
If you don’t respond, the car has the time to alert you louder, slow down, and take whatever defensive measures it needs to. This might happen in such real world circumstances as:
- Falling sleep
- Medical emergencies
- Switching drivers (although this seems to lack the thrill and challenge it once did)
- Rocking the boat while in motion.
Overall, let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water. Autopilot by itself is probably a better driver than most, and when paired with human driving, is inevitably better than a person alone. Autopilot, like other AIs that we have given the power to kill, will only get smarter with time.
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