[SystemSafety] Subaru aspirational email

[Olwen Morgan]

On 15/05/2020 13:00, Peter Bishop wrote:

-<snip>-
>
> So there is a lot of mileage (excuse the pun) in *assisting* the 
> driver rather than replacing him/her, e.g.
>
> -detecting driver inattention/sleepiness/drunkenness
> -blocking misuse of mobile phones
> -vision enhancement (infra-red / radar  imaging / all round view cameras)
> -collision detection / emergency braking
>
> Such driver assistance could feasibly reduce the fatal accident rate 
> by an order of magnitude
> - a challenging target for a fully autonomous vehicle.
>
Indeed, and more to the point, providing better driver assistance is 
well within the current capabilities of automotive software engineering 
(apart, arguably, from execrably bad HMI design skills - I've already 
griped about the Ford C-Max on this list - the speed limiter and cruise 
control are *still* giving me jolting surprises after almost a year of 
ownership).

The resources required to realise better driver assistance would be 
modest (if not minuscule) in comparison with what it would take to get 
autonomous vehicles right. And this is quite part from the costs of the 
infrastructure improvement that would be needed to achieve anything 
approaching safe use of AVs.

As we curmudgeons say:

1.    Don't try to run before you can walk.

2.    Don't try to walk before you can crawl.

3.    If you're still crawling, don't expect others to share your 
expansive vision of the future.


Ho, hum ...

Olwen



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