MIT Study: Tesla Autopilot Drivers "Maintain Functional Vigilance"

Long-time Slashdot reader Rei writes: Friday, the results of a study by the MIT Center for Transport and Logistics on autonomous system driver attentiveness were released, and the results were conclusive: 'drivers do not appear to over-trust the system to a degree that results in significant functional vigilance degradation in their supervisory role of system operation'.

The study, involving 323,384 miles driven (34,8% on autopilot) and 8682 'tricky situations' identified. Of the 'tricky situations', 0% of incidents involved slow driver responses or missed detections; 4,5% rapid/timely responses; 90,6% anticipatory reaction (preventing the situation from occurring); and 4,9% 'other'. The study suggests that this is the result of two effects: 1) drivers effectively learn the limits of the system through usage; and 2) 'tricky situations' are common enough so as to prevent excess trust by the driver in the system — creating the counterintuitive result that the better the systems become, the worse the driver may become.

While the study is limited by the age of the vehicles (under a quarter were even running HW2, vs HW3 which is being released now — and due to the length of the study, most of the miles were accumulated on older software versions), it offers positive conclusions — but also a precaution — about the integration of humans and driver assist systems. In other news, Tesla has announced an April 22 Autonomy Investor Day to showcase the capability of its development versions of the software in city driving, and has started rolling out stoplight detection, no-confirmation automated lane changes and exits, and a limited rollout of advanced summon (navigates through parking lots without a driver).

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