Do People Think Cars With Driver-Assist Are Autonomous?2 min read
According to new research conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a significant number of American drivers confuse cars with driver-assist systems with fully autonomous driving modes. This information was reported by Rebecca Bellan in TechCrunch.
This was the conclusion of a poll that studied the behaviors, expectations, and views of regular users of Tesla Autopilot, Nissan/Infiniti ProPILOT Assist, and General Motors Super Cruise.
According to the findings of the survey, “All three groups were shown to be more likely to participate in activities unrelated to driving while using their systems, such as eating or texting, compared to when they were driving manually.”
Almost half of the people who use Super Cruise and 42% of those who use Autopilot have reported that they are comfortable handling their systems as if they were capable of driving themselves.
The revelation follows a series of collisions involving Tesla vehicles equipped with the Autopilot system that has recently come to light. Since 2016, the agency has initiated a total of 39 specialized investigations into accidents that were caused by Autopilot, 37 of which are still active at this time.
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The GMC Super Cruise was the subject of two separate investigations during this same period. Several Tesla drivers initiated legal action against the business in September, accusing it of making misleading claims about the level of autonomy offered by Autopilot and FSD. This is the same allegation that the California DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) made against Tesla not long ago.
According to Bellan, the findings of the study indicate that driver monitoring systems as well as “proactive, multifaceted user-centric safeguards” are essential to the process of molding appropriate behavior and gaining an understanding of the roles that drivers play when using partial driver-assist car systems.