Falling asleep in an AV… but what happens next?

Sleeping while a driverless car speeds you to your destination has long been touted as the dream of the new technology – and something of a nightmare for safety campaigners. A new video from the BBC shows exactly what happens if a driver falls asleep in an autonomous vehicle (AV). In the filmed test, the AV prompts the driver to resume control when approaching roadworks on a motorway. When the driver fails to act, the vehicle comes to a halt and automatically parks in a lay-by. Motor industry research
September 18, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Sleeping while a driverless car speeds you to your destination has long been touted as the dream of the new technology – and something of a nightmare for safety campaigners.

A new %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external video false https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-49652566/what-happens-if-you-fall-asleep-in-a-self-driving-car false false%> from the 4967 BBC shows exactly what happens if a driver falls asleep in an autonomous vehicle (AV).

In the filmed test, the AV prompts the driver to resume control when approaching roadworks on a motorway. When the driver fails to act, the vehicle comes to a halt and automatically parks in a lay-by.

Motor industry research organisation Thatcham Research wants this capability to be mandatory in autonomous systems.

Thatcham’s Matthew Avery says: “Vehicle manufacturers are advocating that its fine for the vehicle to stop in lane. We simply don’t think that’s safe. We say that vehicle manufacturers mustn’t leave a vehicle in the middle of the lane. If the driver doesn’t respond, pull the vehicle over, out of the running traffic.”

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

BBC

Related Content

  • Upcoming Flir traffic webinars
    October 30, 2015
    Flir Traficon Academy is organising several informative webinars for November, to provide participants with more about keeping traffic flowing. The vehicle and bicycle presence detector on 5 November at 7:00am, 1:30pm and 6:30pm will discuss the Flir ThermiCam/TrafiSense integrated thermal camera and detector that can be used for vehicle and bike detection, which uses thermal energy emitted from vehicles and bicyclists to detect their presence
    Read More
  • MTC approves e-tolling upgrade for Bay Area bridges
    September 23, 2019
    The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) intends to replace cash lanes with the electronic FasTrak tolling system at seven bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area. A report by Fox 2 KTVU says the MTC is hoping the $4 million upgrade will speed up traffic flow and save money on operations on the following bridges: Carquinez, Antioch, Benicia, Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay, San Mateo and Dumbarton. For drivers without a FasTrak system, cameras will capture the number plates of their v
    Read More
  • Zenzic identifies ‘golden threads’ to accelerate AV roll-out
    September 12, 2019
    A UK organisation has identified 500 ‘milestones’ to be passed in order to get connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) on the road in numbers by 2030. Zenzic, which was set up by government and industry to coordinate a national platform for testing and developing C/AVs, has launched the UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap to 2030. It identifies six ‘golden threads’ which highlight areas dependent on cross-industry collaboration to make self-driving services accessible to the public by the end of
    Read More
  • Cohda Wireless to trial AVs which can talk to each other in Australia
    October 15, 2018
    Cohda Wireless is to trial two autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Australia this month. The MKZ Sedans can communicate with traffic lights and each other – and the company also expects them to be able to detect pedestrians around blind corners. The initiative, approved by the South Australian government, will take place in Adelaide’s central business district on closed-off roads. Dr Paul Gray, chief executive officer of Cohda Wireless, told ABC that the technology is intended to reduce the chance of huma
    Read More

Highlighted Content