Driver Ahead conference: more training needed on driverless cars

Driverless cars can create confusion unless training meets the fast pace of change and helps drivers cope with a whole new set of demands, according to a conclusion reached by industry experts at London’s ‘Driver Ahead’ conference in London. The IAM RoadSmart/ RAC Foundation/ Pirelli event consisted of over 100 industry experts who set out to map a safe route for driverless cars. Guest speaker Victoria Coren-Mitchell opened the conference by introducing the “death by code” concept
October 12, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Driverless cars can create confusion unless training meets the fast pace of change and helps drivers cope with a whole new set of demands, according to a conclusion reached by industry experts at London’s ‘Driver Ahead’ conference in London.

The IAM RoadSmart/ 4961 RAC Foundation/ Pirelli event consisted of over 100 industry experts who set out to map a safe route for driverless cars.

Guest speaker Victoria Coren-Mitchell opened the conference by introducing the “death by code” concept, challenging the conference to decide if deaths caused by a computer are better or worse than human error.

Simon Thompson, human factors specialist at 7998 Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Without the driving, there will be the desire to do secondary tasks – but how does the car engage with the driver when it needs him or her? There is a lot more that needs to be done in designing cars so that controls are easier to find, when asking the driver to take over control again.”

Other experts, such as Professor Nick Reed, head of mobility research at 311 Bosch pointed out that drivers could also misuse the vehicle systems, “Any system needs to be aware of the effective use or misuse of it.”

Professor and chair of human factors engineering at Southampton University, Neville Stanton pointed out that there may be times when a driver has nothing to do, then a sudden requirement to intervene in an emergency situation can lead to them panicking and creating a tragedy. He said, “The problem with automation is that it is not currently powerful to render the driver completely redundant. It requires the driver to monitor continuously and intervene occasionally. The car needs to support, not replace the driver.”

Nic Fasci, lead engineer for vehicle engineering and homologation at Tata Motors European Technical centre, said: “The key to autonomous vehicles is training, training, training! The skill of driving must be robotic before the software can be developed. The skill of driving is being eroded and this can be seen every day.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Leading Finland’s transport revolution
    July 18, 2017
    Anne Berner, Finland’s minister of transport and communications, does not fit the normal political mould. She is not a career politician but a business executive who became a member of parliament in 2015 and has said from the outset that she will only serve one term. Without concerns about being re-elected and a clear view of the future of transport, Berner can concentrate on what needs to be done - tackling some of the more contentious and intransigent subjects. Her name is best known for two major initiat
    Read More
  • AV trucks now operating in $8.8m pilot between Ohio and Indiana
    April 16, 2025
    Two tractor-trailers are travelling on I-70 between Columbus and Indianapolis
    Read More
  • Nearly 25% of UK millennials ‘favour renting cars’ – new research
    October 9, 2018
    Nearly a quarter of UK millennials would forgo buying a car and are likely to subscribe to a car-as-a-service scheme within the next year, according to new research. The study by cloud software subscription service Zuora states UK millennials are ‘key drivers’ for the ‘subscription economy’, with 73% looking to increase subscription use over the next two years. Zuora’s A Nation Subscribed research involved 2,000 consumers and was carried out by YouGov. It shows 77% of 16-24 year olds and 85% of 25-34
    Read More
  • Comment: Be wary of fads – but embrace change
    June 26, 2018
    Along with death and taxes, there is one other certainty in modern life: change. In this issue of ITS International, Jarrett Walker (an urban transit expert who has unaccountably ruffled the feathers of Tesla’s Elon Musk) sensibly implies that we should be wary of fads, but there are some developments which require our full attention. Among these are connected and autonomous vehicles: try as we might to avoid them as dinner party topics of conversation, the world outside of ITS is waking up to the
    Read More

Highlighted Content