Self-Driving Scam

Once again we have to focus somewhat on Elon Musk while discussing a wider problem in modern society. It's about self-driving cars this time and, of course, Musk's wild promises about his self-driving Tesla's.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines six levels of vehicle driving automation systems, ranging from no driving automation (level 0) to full driving automation (level 5). We're currently at level 2, which is described as "partial driving automation," but very much relies on a human actively driving and / or monitoring the self-driving system. And therein lies the problem for all manufacturers who make promises of fully self-driving cars being just around the corner; all levels below 5 require a human monitoring the self-driving system, and that's a big problem.

You see, sitting behind the wheel not driving yourself, but constantly having to keep an eye out for possible hazards undetected by the self-driving software and hardware is... mind-numbingly boring. As such, this creates the risk of drivers becoming less attentive, maybe even nodding off just when a dangerous situation presents itself after hours without any problems. There are no car manufacturers who will take responsibility if and when something goes wrong and they all, even Tesla, put in print that their cars aren't sold as hands-free technology; responsibility lies with the customer at all times. And this won't change with level 3 and level 4 vehicles, some of which already exist, but only as trucks and taxi's. Researcher Kelly Funkhauser had this to say in an interview with CBS's Brook Silva-Braga about the current and future self-driving systems below level 5:

"There's a tendency to find a stimulus because you're bored," she said. "Monitoring a system that's performing well is extremely boring but the problem is the features aren't quite up to speed yet in their capabilities." [...] "Is the person driving or is the person not driving? Because if they're driving then this stuff seems pointless and if they're not driving you can't ask them to drive at a moment's notice," Silva-Braga said.
_{source: CBS News}

I recommend you read the entire above linked article and watch the included video-report. The problem looking forward is that self-driving systems can not anticipate or adequately react to unforeseen circumstances, which happen constantly in traffic, and that it will take decades for those systems to be able to do so. Kelly Funkhauser from the above article predicts that it'll be at least until 2050 that we'll have to wait for a car that doesn't need any monitoring at all. That's a lot more realistic than the boastful lies coming from Elon Musk. I won't expand too much on those lies here, but refer you to the below linked video. I will mention however that Musk claimed in the 2019 Tesla Autonomy Investor Day in Palo Alto, California, that "It would be like owning a horse in three years. I mean, fine if you want to own a horse. But you should go into it with that expectation." Well, I say that it would be insane, financially or otherwise, to trust in any of Elon Musk's predictions or promises, and letting one of his cars do the driving for you could prove lethal.

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