That has been the cause of every fatal crash involving autonomous tech that I've read about. In one example, a trained test driver, who supposedly knew the limitations of the tech, is lulled into thinking he didn't have to pay attention once the nannybot was engaged, The level 3- equipped car he was monitoring failed to see a bicyclist crossing the road and ran over her while he was busy with his phone
Hi Matt,
That would be interesting. That means it would have to understand the type of roadway (single or multiple lanes in each direction), read and understand the lane lines to know if it's a passing zone or not, be able to look far enough ahead to not pull out and collide head on with a semi or something, and look far enough behind to not be rear ended by a speeder trying to pass everyone. Pretty complicated stuff. If it forces people to use their signal and is more aware of the other vehicles around it than most drivers I see on the road, then let's do it.
Hi Matt,
Probably not a system I would get much use out of then if it requires the mapping. Google hasn't even gotten to some of the roads around here. haha I hardly get much freeway driving in, let alone multi-lane highways. haha
Staying centered in the lane will make a big difference. We ordered the driver assist package on the Ranger primarily to get ACC, but it also came with lane assist so I tried it out a few times. My biggest disappointment with the lane assist is that while it does help keep you from crossing out of a lane on well-marked highways, it does not help keep the vehicle centered in the lane even when the markings are very clear. Because of this, I only find it useful in a small handful of circumstances
I highly recommend looking at the Tesla system with Autopilot. They have configuration options to set the car to auto change lanes if you want. It can see all the vehicles around and know when it is safe to change lanes. If there is currently a car in lane next to you if will wait till the car has passed or lane is open with enough space for car to move over.
ACC is awesome, if you like it, which I really do. The current ranger lane keep assist is pretty sad. I tried it a few times on open highway and felt like I was swerving between lines and truck would even drive over line and have no idea it just left the lane. I never use lane keep on my truck.
I've seen demonstrations of that on car shows. Grand Tour maybe? I don't remember anymore. But does that work on non-multi lane roads? It's fairly easy (relatively) to move over a lane when everyone is moving the same direction at relatively the same speed. The real test will be when one can navigate a two lane rural road (one in each direction), understand the lane markings, and not get smashed by a logging truck coming the other direction. Then it'll be of use to me. I do maybe a couple thousand freeway/multi-lane highway miles a year, and the other 20k miles is all rural roads.
Visible lane markings is the key. The tesla uses camera vision to see the lines. I have no problem on the 2 lane roads where I live as long as the lines aren't completely worn off. When I leave the nice paved roads for 1.5 car wide gravel roads, the car won't allow you to turn on the autopilot as it is unsure where the road is.
Staying between the lines isn't the problem. I don't discount that works very well. The Ranger can figure that out some of the time around here too. It's the passing aspect that will be complicated. But as @RANGER PRIDE noted, if every vehicle is autopilot, then there would be no need for passing. Again, I'm not saying it's a bad system or a non-useful system. Just that a lot of rural people won't be able to use that kind of stuff for quite some time. Though rural people don't account for very much of the population anymore, which is exactly the way I like it. haha And it would require substantial infrastructure changes which the US is not good at as well. Tesla's are amazing engineering marvels and I'm glad they're pushing the envelope and forcing others to up their game, but they're not for everyone. At least not yet.
It's fine that it's just an assist and not an autopilot, the problem is that it's not a particularly well designed assist, at least a number of us feel that way. It waits until you've almost hit the line before it does anything, and because of that it often must swerve at the last second. As @P. A. Schilke has said, it won't use so much force that it jerks the wheel out of your hand, but because its force is limited, it will sometimes not make the adjustment in time (sometimes fairly often on winding roads, even if the markings are good). The fact that it can miss so often means that it can actually add driver stress rather than reduce it.
