Self-driving cars are coming. Tech companies like Google and Nvidia, tier-one auto parts suppliers like Delphi, and OEMs like Audi, Tesla, and Volvo are all hard at work turning our automobiles into robots. The possibilities for reducing congestion and air pollution while increasing safety on the roads are tantalizing, but do people actually want their cars to drive themselves? That's the question that Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan wanted answered. As it turns out, a plurality of drivers is happy being in control of their vehicles, and only 15 percent want to be chauffeured around like Arnold in Total Recall.
The self-driving car isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. There are already cars on the road that are capable of semi-autonomous driving on the freeway (adaptive cruise control systems combined with lane-centering), and it will be many years before a car is able to handle a busy downtown interchange in Mumbai or Manhattan. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) actually lays out five levels of autonomous automobile.
It starts with level zero, where the driver is in complete control, with no aids. Cars with automated safety functions like dynamic brake assist or lane-centering steering are deemed level one if those systems work independently of each other. Combining at least two safety systems gives us level two (so adaptive cruise control and lane-centering, for example). Level three automation combines all these safety features, allowing a driver to cede complete control to the car, with what NHTSA describes as "a sufficiently comfortable transition time" allowed before returning to manual control. Finally, level four is fully autonomous, i.e. the car drives itself throughout the entire journey, with the occupants as just passengers.
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