I agree with Alain Kornhauser - and the research that backs up his position - that the approach of Tesla and other auto manufacturers of introducing partially autonomous vehicles could well cause more crashes. Imagine drifting off to sleep in the front seat during your 50th long, boring drive somewhere. On the 51st trip, suddenly awakened, you are supposed to immediately take over the wheel in a split-second, dangerous situation.
Oh really?
Oh and you just might lose the lawsuit - unless the manufacturer settles because it does not want a stream of bad PR - because right in front of you on the dashboard is a little box with a text warning you to keep your hands on the wheel and your attention on the road at all times.
Data shows humans need a few seconds
The expectation that you take over the wheel instantly will probably not work, according to research. A study out of Stanford says that people generally need five-to-10 seconds; two will do better than one, and one is a recipe for disaster. So that little alarm to take over the wheel will probably do as well as the alarm by your bedside in terms of the time it takes to focus one's attention and to shift from watching a video, napping, daydreaming, or even blankly staring at the road to "Holy crap, what is going on and I have to do something!" And that's if you have not fallen fast asleep.
I am skeptical of this halfway technology. It can work well if it works well all the time or almost none of the time, but the idea that in a small minority of situations drivers will be instantly ready to assert themselves, no.
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