National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Archives

On May 7, a man from Williston, Florida, lost his life in a car crash when a large truck made a left turn in front of his Tesla model S car which was running on autopilot. Federal investigators are currently investigating the case.

Tesla, which unveiled the accident Thursday, said that a federal agency is now probing whether its cars’ autopilot feature is safe for the public roads. The car crash could now spark a lot of soul searching within the driverless car industry, some analysts suggest.

Though it is the first time a person dies while a car is in autopilot mode, there had been other reports of incidents related to the technology.

Tesla said that the Williston driver’s car ended up under the big rig whose bottom smashed the car’s windshield. The company said that the autopilot and driver were deceived by the bright lit sky which made it impossible for them to detect the white trailer truck moving in the car’s direction.

As a result the car failed to brake in time. Tesla, which reported the collision to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that very day, said that the autopilot mode was still in beta testing.

The firm noted that the feature is far from perfect and gets constantly improved. Furthermore, the feature is not turned on by default. A driver needs “explicit acknowledgement” before activating the system that he is aware that the mode is in a beta phase.

Additionally, the system prompts the driver to keep his or her hands on the wheel while autopilot is on. The driver is also prompted to stay alert and get ready to take control of the vehicle at any time.

Industry analysts believe that the recent fatal crash won’t make customers lose faith in Tesla but in the infallibility of the autopilot feature. Karl Brauer of the Kelley Blue Book believes that the tragic incident is an opportunity to educate customers before driverless cars become mainstream.

NHTSA announced that it would probe the “design and performance” of the autopilot in Tesla Model S cars while also investigating the fatal crash and the vehicle.

Other analysts think that the car crash won’t ruin the momentum of automated driving technology unless the agency finds that driverless driving is more dangerous than conventional driving.

Image Source: Wikimedia

The technological advances in the automotive industry seem to come at a brisk pace, with Google, Nissan and others announcing that smart, self-driving cars will soon be a reality on the streets of the world somewhere before 2020.

If that happens, it is estimated that car accidents will decrease drastically to the point of being practically non-existent, all due to the (supposedly) infallible, fast-processing, not-distractable computer brains that such cars will have.

But there’s good news regarding car safety until that happens as well. Because technological advances in the automotive industry have not focused only on self-driving cars. Actually, there are some new technologies out there meant to aid human drivers too. And they are pretty awesome and effective.

Like the one that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the USA wants to see implemented the most. And fast. Due to all of the increasing and increasingly distracted drivers on the road.

Starting with 2018 models, the NHTSA will include automatic emergency breaking (AEB) on the list of criteria for a five-star safety rating. More than that, this September, the NHTSA reached agreements with 10 car companies for them to include the AEB technology as a standard feature in their cars! Way to go NHTSA.

How the technology works is that using radar and camera sensors, the car itself keeps an eye out for possible collisions, in case the driver isn’t paying attention. If such a collision is detected, there are two subsystems that come into play, depending on the scenario.

If the driver is aware that a collision will happen and brakes sufficiently, the AEB technology is not activated. If he is aware, but brakes insufficiently, the first subsystem called the dynamic break support (DBS) does its part by dynamically adjusting the brake intensity, i.e. braking more, if necessary to avoid a collision.

If the driver is not aware and doesn’t break at all, the crash imminent braking (CIB) system comes online, applying the brakes without any input or command from the driver.

The NHTSA estimates that with this technology a standard on all cars, the 1,700 yearly deaths by rear-end collision could be reduced by up to 80%, which is a staggering figure in terms of the significant loss of life that could be avoided.

Which is also why apart from the automatic emergency breaking recommendation and agreements discussed above, the NHTSA has also taken to educating the public at large (and other car makers) about AEB by creating both a website and a video about this technology.

And that’s still not all. Because the NHTSA also has its eye on imposing other advanced safety ensuring technologies like: lane departure warnings and forward collision warnings and electronic stability control (ESC).

Image source: 1.

Tesla Driver Dies while Car in Autopilot Mode

NHTSA Automatic Emergency Breaking Recommendation

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