WCA September 2016

From the Americas

Tesla also asserted that Autopilot is disabled by default and requires, before the system can be enabled, the operator’s explicit acknowledgment that this is new technology and still in a public beta [a testing phase open to any user, who is known as a beta tester]. When the driver activates Autopilot, the acknowledgment box explains that Autopilot “is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel . . . prepared to take over at any time.” What do the experts say?  To Missy Cummings, director of Duke University’s Humans and Autonomy Lab, the Tesla crash shows the limitations of quasi-automated cars. As she told the Detroit News : “This is one of those situations where the system didn’t know what it couldn’t see and neither did the human.” Ms Cummings, who testified before Congress in March that boosters of the self-driving technology are exaggerating its readiness for widespread expansion, said research shows “humans simply do not pay attention when they think the system is good enough.”  John Simpson, the privacy project director of California-based Consumer Watchdog , a non-profit education and advocacy organisation, was rather more judgmental. “The fatal crash of a Tesla while on so-called Autopilot should serve as a wake-up call for all who are rushing to deploy autonomous vehicles,” he said. Detroit excels in the influential JD Power Initial Quality Study – but Kia of South Korea is the star The results of the JD Power Initial Quality Study of 2016 model vehicles show that all three Detroit automakers improved their scores – to the point, in fact, of collectively outperforming import brands for only the second time in 30 years. But, for an even more impressive showing in the closely watched study, South Korea’s Kia Motors earned the top score among the 33 brands evaluated. JD Power and Associates (Costa Mesa, California), which conducts multiple annual surveys of the automotive industry, determines initial quality from the number of problems experienced by new car buyers in the early days of ownership. This year’s data, derived from more than 80,000 completed surveys, revealed that the Detroit Three – General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) – achieved a combined average score of 103 problems per 100 vehicles over the first 90 days of new vehicle ownership. That represents a 10 per cent improvement from 2015 and twice the improvement rate of the import brands that scored a collective 106 problems per 100. As noted by automotive reporter Brent Snavely of the Detroit Free Press , the collective score for the Detroit Three is good news for the USA automotive industry, whose vehicles suffer from an impression that their quality lags that of Asian and German products. It is, Mr Snavely wrote, especially good news for FCA, “which typically finishes last in quality and reliability studies from third-party organisations like JD Power.”

Automotive The first fatal crash in the USA of an autonomous car heightens concerns about the Tesla S and other “self-driving” vehicles Early accounts of a fatal highway crash involving a 2015 Tesla Model S centred on the colourful figure of owner/driver Joshua Brown – former US Navy SEAL, knowledgeable “techie”, strongly enthusiastic Tesla fan – who died at the scene. Mr Brown had enjoyed cruising the highways with the car on Autopilot, making YouTube videos of himself driving hands-free. In the first nine months he owned it, the 40–year-old Mr Brown, of Canton, Ohio, put more than 45,000 miles on the all-electric car he nicknamed Tessy. If anyone might be expected to operate a Model S safely, it was he. But in the collision on 7 th May in Williston, Florida, which claimed Mr Brown’s life the car was operating in Autopilot mode. His is believed to be the first death in the USA in the crash of a vehicle with its semi-autonomous driving feature engaged. (Note: Strictly speaking, the Model S is not a self-driving car. It has self-driving features – autonomous elements meant to assist rather than replace the driver.) According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it received notification from Tesla Motors (Palo Alto, California) of the fatal accident. The safety regulator is now investigating about 25,000 Tesla cars and will “examine the design and performance of any automated driving systems in use at the time of the crash.” While NHTSA said it will be gathering more data about the Florida accident, from preliminary reports the sequence of events is clear enough. According to the Detroit News , NHTSA said a semi-trailer rig turned left in front of the Tesla at a highway intersection. The police said the roof of the car struck the underside of the trailer and the car passed beneath. The car went off the road, striking two wire fences and a power pole before coming to a rest about 100 feet away. (“NHTSA Probes Tesla Self-Driving Cars After Fatal Crash,” 30 th June) Tesla wrote in a 30 th June blog post that, because neither Autopilot nor the driver perceived the white side of the tractor-trailer against a bright sky, the brake was not applied. ‘The system didn’t know what it couldn’t see’ It is perhaps worth quoting more fully from Tesla: “The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S. Had the Model S impacted the front or rear of the trailer, even at high speed, its advanced crash safety system would likely have prevented serious injury as it has in numerous other similar incidents.”

BigStockPhoto.com Photographer: Aispl

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2016