Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - April 2022 - 2

Editorial
Safety sells, they say. Should it sell
driving automation?
It's not clear who coined the term
" safety sells, " but industry execs and
engineers have told me many times that
customers won't pay for safety. Safety and
the auto business have a tenuous history
that, I reckon, might not be improved by
the increase of ADAS and higher-level
automated driving functionality.
When AV developers pivoted from
" gee-whiz " promises to the " automated
driving is hard " reality, all but the most
well-heeled entities also had to shift
to ADAS-related development in the
attempt to generate revenue. That
meant making a case on the showroom
floor for today's assisted-driving technologies.
The " sell " split
predictable
into two
channels: convenience
and safety. But do advanced driving
systems (ADS) deliver on either? That
depends on your perspective.
I instinctually question the motives
of the Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety (IIHS), but I do think they got
it right in a January 2022 announcement
of a new rating program for
ADAS features. The program's chief
goal is to ensure that
" hands-off "
assistance systems have robust safeguards
to guarantee driver attention. It
included harsh alerts and ramifications
if attention criteria aren't obeyed. The
rating also encompasses the behaviors
of lane-centering and adaptive cruise
control. Consumer Reports also is more
closely scrutinizing driver-assistance
systems and said it would consider the
new IIHS rating in its own evaluations.
Crucially, IIHS said no current-production
vehicles would meet all pending
criteria of the new rating. And although I
seldom agree with many IIHS pronouncements,
president David Harkey was
dialed in with this statement in the
agency's release: " Partial automation
systems may make long drives seem like
less of a burden, but there is no evidence
that they make driving safer. In fact, the
opposite may be the case if systems lack
adequate safeguards. "
That statement hits home, more
than many in the mobility sector may
admit. What are these features really
good for? Is steering your vehicle that
much of a burden, even on long drives,
given that there's yet no viable alternative
that allows you to go to sleep
or read a book? If these systems insist
you remain awake and keenly vigilant
to take the wheel at a moment's notice,
how much " burden " is being alleviated?
And is this kind of automated steering in
any way safer than having a human do
the job? In its current form, I'm dubious.
Many ADAS functions such as pedestrian
detection and automatic braking
are " sold " on an implication of enhanced
safety. Yet Consumer Reports, AAA and
IIHS tests of automated braking found
the systems lacking in certain conditions,
particularly at night and when making
turns. And yes, I'm uncomfortable with
one OEM's TV commercial that shows
a driver, hands off the wheel, engaged
with his family's hand-centric video game
while their vehicle speeds along.
The " sell " in that ad has little to
do with safety. And it's not difficult to
imagine the next easy steps to inattentiveness
and over-reliance (the central
issue in another OEM's famously oversold
driver-assistance system). So it
might be time to create even harder
distinctions between convenience and
safety, and what's really being sold to
the consumer. In its present executions,
driver-assistance as a safety enhancement
has caveats that should be more
aggressively addressed.
Bill Visnic, Editorial Director
EDITORIAL
Bill Visnic
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2 April 2022
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - April 2022

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