It will take time for ADAS and autonomous driving to become standard

Roads are the main route for people to travel, but they are also extremely dangerous places. Despite the increasing safety and intelligence of cars, the number of traffic accident deaths in the United States in 2021 still hit a 16-year high[1] and will continue until 2023.

The trend towards larger vehicles and the focus on safe driving experience often bring greater dangers to non-motor vehicles and pedestrians. Pedestrian and non-motor vehicle deaths are the main reasons for the increase in total deaths. The automotive industry is actively adopting various smarter and safer technologies to ensure the safety of everyone.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are primarily designed to make roads safer. They have advanced safety systems and are less likely to be distracted like human drivers. However, there is still a long way to go before AVs are widely used.

In addition to the challenges of onboard technology, there are also infrastructure obstacles (such as unclear road markings) that self-driving cars need to deal with. In addition to these tangible challenges, there are other major obstacles that engineers cannot solve in the laboratory, including social and economic barriers.

01

Drive-by-wire skepticism

In the 2010 "Prius runaway" incident, the driver claimed that the car accelerated out of control, reaching a speed of 151km/h (94mi/h), which raised questions about modern electronically controlled engines. What exactly happened to the Prius remains a mystery, but the story has become a point of contention over whether to hand over control of the car to a computer.

More than a decade later, many of us have had first-hand experience with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and the occasionally rudimentary controls that ADAS employs make it hard to reassure people that they will fully relinquish control. Adaptive cruise control allows a car to automatically maintain a certain distance from the vehicle in front of it. For long-distance driving, it is an incredible tool that reacts quickly to slow down and avoid vehicles when it detects that a vehicle is merging with it.

As drivers, we may not know the intentions of other drivers, but we at least know our own driving plans. We know when to accelerate and brake, which lane to merge into, and our driving habits. When ADAS takes over and handles things differently than humans do, it can have a shocking effect. After hundreds of thousands of miles, drivers have become accustomed to cars behaving in a certain way, and any change will be met with resistance and difficult to be widely accepted.

02

More than just a machine

Cars are a passion of the American people. When the weather is nice, collectors take their well-kept classic cars out for a spin. Cars and coffee parties fill parking lots in major cities on weekend mornings, where car enthusiasts show off their unique personalities. Perhaps no machine has more cultural and personal significance to Americans than the car. The car is the embodiment of individualism and freedom, and for most Americans, it is the only way to get around. Countless songs and movies have romanticized the joy of driving. My personal favorite is The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

The reality is that people have deep attachments to their cars and may not be eager to hand over the reins to computers. In the short term, designers must consider that self-driving cars will still have human drivers at the controls.

03

Giving vehicles a moral compass

The challenge for designers is how to create a perfect driving experience on a road filled with imperfect drivers. In addition to the infamous trolley problem of whether a self-driving car should prioritize protecting passengers over bystanders, self-driving cars will also need to make ethical decisions while driving on a daily basis.

For example, if every car is going 10 km/h over the speed limit, should the self-driving car also be speeding? How does a self-driving car know when to actively merge into a busy flow of cars that are not yielding? If two self-driving cars collide in the woods, how do you determine who is at fault if there are no witnesses?

Human drivers make mistakes, but self-driving cars follow their programming. At computer speeds, a human driver's split-second choices look like deliberate decisions for a computer-driven car. Regulators recognize that self-driving cars have an obligation to ensure safe driving. In the case of Mercedes-Benz's new SAE Level 3 models, the automaker will be legally responsible for accidents that occur while the car is driving itself. As ADAS and self-driving features become more common, the legal and regulatory systems will need to be improved.

04

It will take time for ADAS to become standard

In May 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a new draft rule that would require all passenger cars and light trucks to be equipped with automatic emergency braking (AEB). If the rule is adopted by the federal government, automakers will have three years to equip all new vehicles with AEB systems. [2] Automakers have already made significant progress in equipping new vehicles with AEB as part of their voluntary commitments. [3] However, because large modern vehicles pose an increasing threat to the safety of people outside the vehicle, the proposed rule would go further and require pedestrian protection systems.

AEB can save lives and reduce injuries and accidents by reacting faster than humans. However, the adoption of this technology also comes with a higher cost. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average price of a new car in the United States is more than $48,000. [4] Cars equipped with sensors and other electronic devices are particularly expensive to produce. As a result, many American car owners are reluctant to upgrade their cars, resulting in the increasing average age of existing cars, reaching a record 12.5 years in mid-2023. [5] Most of the cars sold were produced when AEB and other ADAS features were only available on high-end models or luxury cars.

05

Shared Road

The more autonomous vehicles on the road, the more effective they will be at reducing accidents and improving traffic conditions through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. However, it will take years before V2V can be truly used in two-way corridors with many vehicles. Similar to passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes and traction control, ADAS and autonomous driving will also take time to become daily functions.

At the same time, in addition to technological and infrastructure barriers, the widespread use of advanced vehicles will also require overcoming challenges in social norms and preferences.