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

  • Venkat Sumantran: ‘Smart cities are more hype than reality’
    November 23, 2018
    For all the talk of smart cities, investment in systems lags significantly behind organic expansion in most places. Andrew Stone talks to Venkat Sumantran, who has been looking at how to create a coherent framework which could help authorities answer multiple mobility questions Two megatrends are posing unprecedented challenges to those trying to keep people moving around the world’s urban areas now - and in the years and decades to come. The first is rapid urbanisation. One in six of us lived in urban a
    Read More
  • Moovit: Gut feelings no match for data
    August 7, 2019
    Cities that bring in mobility services without data might be missing out on areas where demand is highest. Ben Spencer talks to Moovit’s Alon Shantzer about how the company is helping customers to pinpoint the right locations Launching mobility services without taking into account public transportation data can lead to chaos in cities. That’s the view of Alon Shantzer, vice president international sales at Moovit, the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) provider and transit app. “The data we have can define
    Read More
  • Australia 'must look to Europe' as template for ITS data governance
    April 5, 2024
    ITS Australia conference in Brisbane also focused on key projects and collaboration
    Read More
  • UK motorists concerned about increase in mobile phone use while driving
    November 23, 2016
    Over 86 per cent of UK motorists think distraction caused by mobile phones has become worse in the last three years, according to the second Safety Culture Survey commissioned by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart. In second place was congestion at 81 per cent, reflecting the increasing number of vehicles on the roads as the recession ends. Of the 2,000 UK drivers surveyed, nearly three quarters believed aggressive driving had worsened over the last three years, with more than 60 per cent reporting the
    Read More

Highlighted Content