Misleading users: Multiple autonomous driving system information is incomplete

Recently, according to foreign media reports, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that as the functions of autonomous driving systems gradually become richer, users' understanding of the systems began to develop cognitive biases. The agency also collected information displayed on the dashboard to confirm whether car companies provide users with correct information about semi-autonomous driving systems.

IIHS asked 2,000 respondents about five different Level 2 autonomous driving systems, including Cadillac's Super Cruise, Tesla's Autopilot, Audi and Acura's Traffic Jam Assist, BMW's Driving Assistant Plus and Nissan's ProPilot Assist. During the survey, IIHS did not tell respondents the names of the car companies that correspond to these Level 2 autonomous driving systems.

Take Tesla as an example. Although the official website states that Autopilot still requires active monitoring by the driver, the survey shows that Autopilot is the most misleading to the respondents. Nearly 50% of users believe that this Tesla in-vehicle system allows users to take their hands off the steering wheel after starting the system. In contrast, the proportion of respondents who were misled by other systems is only 33% or less.

The survey found that most people know when the adaptive cruise control system adjusts the speed or detects a vehicle in front, but many do not understand why the system cannot detect vehicles farther away. In addition, users do not understand when the lane keeping assist system is "inactive", even those who have received simple training do not understand this, and cannot explain why the system is still inactive in this situation. In such cases, the driver needs to take over the control of the vehicle again, or even apply the brakes.

Whether automakers will provide more detailed information about autonomous driving systems in the future remains to be seen. Due to the large differences in the names of various brands, the American Automobile Association has begun to address the naming and branding issues of such systems, hoping to standardize the names of the current nine popular driver assistance systems.

In addition, among various autonomous driving assistance systems, nearly 40% of Americans hope that Tesla Autopilot and Nissan ProPilot Assist technologies can achieve fully autonomous driving functions.