By Daniel Michaels and Andy Pasztor
Aviation-safety experts have advice for the car industry as it
moves to autonomous-driving vehicles: Proceed slowly and make sure
drivers realize the limits of the technology.
As airline pilots became increasingly reliant on automation over
the years, the focus shifted to simplified cockpit displays and
enhanced crew training.
Many high-end cars now offer sophisticated cruise-control and
collision-avoidance systems that can maneuver in traffic and on
highways without driver commands. From automatic braking to
steering assist, manufacturers rely on them as marketing tools.
But several accidents involving Tesla Motors Inc. cars with such
technology, including a fatal accident in Florida, have federal
highway-safety regulators investigating the company's onboard
automation. Some aviation safety experts warn that existing
automotive controls shouldn't be considered mature autopilot
systems.
"It's quite ridiculous we would give somebody such a complex
vehicle without training," said former commercial pilot Shawn
Pruchnicki, who teaches air safety at Ohio State University. It is
a mistake, he added, "to assume that the general public is going to
be able to jump in and understand what [the] limitations are."
Early autopilots originated in airplanes around World War I, but
it wasn't until 1947 that a U.S. Air Force plane made the first
trans-Atlantic flight using hands-off flying controls. Such
features evolved and only became widespread gradually, allowing
individual elements to be rigorously tested and verified before
plane makers integrated them into complex flight-management
systems.
Today, jumbo jets and supersonic fighters rely on a web of
computerized equipment and software to get airborne, cruise and
even land with little or no human input.
A key lesson from aviation is that reducing risks takes
time.
"We have to create perfection in the collision-avoidance systems
before we have the car drive itself," said Mark Rosenker, a former
chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board who dealt with
safety issues affecting roads, rails and aircraft. So far, "there
are nuances to these technologies that we have not yet perfected,"
he noted, such as the difference between avoiding a car in front
and detecting when a driver is veering off the road.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has rejected calls to disable
his company's autopilot function, which steers cars more actively
than those installed in other brands. But he has embraced one of
the lessons from aviation: the importance of training users how to
interact with complicated automation. Tesla has vowed to step up
efforts to educate customers about the way its autopilots work.
The push toward self-driving vehicles has a long way to go to
match advances in commercial planes. In theory, many jetliners can
fly autonomously, except for taxiing to the gate and shutting off
the engines.
Some computerized safeguards are designed to kick in
automatically during particularly dangerous types of emergencies,
including engine failure during takeoff.
Airplane automation can also be calibrated to different levels,
based on crews' preference. That is supposed to keeps pilots more
aware and engaged. Airlines also require at least two pilots in
cockpits, and the one not manipulating the controls is trained to
monitor the automated systems.
But psychologists and automation experts say people tend to be
poor monitors, whether they are behind the steering wheel or flying
in an aluminum tube miles above the Earth. So airliners have
extensive visual and aural warnings in case something goes
wrong.
For cars, it is essential to develop auto-drive systems
sophisticated enough to recognize when a vehicle is swerving
between lanes or performing other dangerous maneuvers, according to
Martin Chalk, an Airbus A380 pilot and president of the
International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations.
More important, according to Mr. Chalk, full-blown automation
must be able to intercede to enforce highway rules and keep track
of speed limits.
Automotive systems, however, need to avoid inundating operators
with nonessential data, according to Yannick Malinge, product
safety chief for Airbus Group SE: "A key point is to give
information to the driver that he or she needs to have, not what
simply would be nice to have."
Mr. Malinge emphasized that Airbus has devised its
flight-management computers so that during each phase of flight,
they prominently display just the most relevant information. The
system knows "what information you will need under various
circumstances, and what isn't essential" to show pilots.
To be sure, aviation has suffered from pilots relying unduly on
cockpit automation. High-profile accidents include an Air France
Airbus A330 that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 after pilots
were confused by automated warnings. A perfectly functioning Asiana
Airlines Boeing 777 that slammed down short of a San Francisco
runway in clear weather four years later because the crew failed to
monitor airspeed.
Drivers, of course, can't depend on simulators or a co-pilots
for help. But Tesla advises drivers to stay alert and keep their
hands on the wheel in case they need to take over unexpectedly.
Write to Daniel Michaels at daniel.michaels@wsj.com and Andy
Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 27, 2016 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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