This seems like... An obvious conclusion? Also since no level 3 or level 4 cars exist (besides the Mercedes in extremely limited applications), this essentially is untestable in the real world. How the car responds to a disengagement seems to be the key issue. Apparently the Mercedes gives you 10 whole seconds to respond... Which should be more than enough time to pay attention and put down your phone you're texting on.
I can say from experience, that TACC and lane keeping significantly reduces my mental load while driving, especially for long periods of time. Highway driving constantly requires you to center the car, and something that does that for you makes doing the rest of the driving (watching out for traffic issues, construction management, etc) much much easier in my view. That's only level 2, however. It still requires you to pay attention, it's just a different kind of attention in my view.
This was my first thought as well. Honestly, this "driver must be ready to instantly take over or else maybe everybody dies" category might be the least interesting kind of autonomous vehicle to me for this reason.
I really love my ACC for all medium-to-long drives, and wish I had real lane keeping (My car will just comically bounce off the sides of the lane unsafely for 5 seconds and then give up entirely and chide you with a loud chime). I agree completely that that's useful technology. Besides that though, wake me up when they can reliably actually drive while the occupants sleep.
If you have a ford, you can swap out the camera for the mobileeye camera and put in the power steering rack from the same year as the camera (2019+). Reflash the firmware to match your model options and tada, retrofit lane centering in your ford.
I used a 2019 ford edge lane centering camera + steering rack in my 2014 ford fusion. Bonus: it is supported by openpilot. If you DIY, I highly recommend a lift.
Is it obvious? Waymo has hundreds of driverless taxis in SF where you literally cannot sit in the driver's seat. Stuff that consumers can currently get their hands on isn't really driverless but the tech exists now.
For cars like Waymo/Cruise/etc, those are Level 5 to my knowledge (with restrictions for location, I guess). You can't sit in the drivers seat, so how can the passengers possibly pay attention or do anything? This study is talking about drivers (in the drivers seat) and Level 3/4 technology. So, what Mercedes is advertising and other car manufacturers are aiming for in the future.
Level 5 is essentially defined as L4 with an "unlimited" ODD, not a meaningful level on its own. Waymo and Cruise are L4 systems, but you could build an L4 system where people were able to drive if you wished.
I get that it's defined that way, but it's not, practically speaking, the same. The article is about a driver having L3/L4 tech. Waymo/Cruise are not allowing that. So you truly can relax/nap/do work email... because what else would you do?
Yes, and the article quotes people that are really only talking about L3, even though they use the word "L4".
One of the defining features of L4 as everyone else uses that term is that you are not required to take over, even in emergencies. L4 capabilities don't prevent you from voluntarily taking over, it's simply not required that you be able to in order to operate the ODD. Both Cruise and Waymo operate test fleets with drivers who can take over, incidentally.
But, when I have an hour-ish ride to the airport, if I'm not chit-chatting with a chatty driver, I'm mostly scrolling through news etc. I'm mostly not firing up something to immerse myself in--obviously much less so if I have to pay some modicum of attention.
I wouldn't even relax driving near them. You never know when one of them will slam on the breaks for no reason or swerve suddenly. I've seen Tesla drivers say their cars will do that unexpectedly even while diving in manual.
After seeing this, I always either leave plenty of room in front of Teslas or try to pass them when possible, and don't let them be just slightly in front of me in the lane beside:
It's like being a driving instructor --- your student will be fine much of the time, but will occasionally make fatal errors that you need to recognise and recover from.
Whilst I understand there is a place for studies and to demonstrate what we all think via the scientific method. But like others have said this is hardly surprising.
I've no doubt people who begun to fly on commercial aircraft where petrified for a long time in the beginning. Yes that's a whole other kettle of fish but still.
I can say from experience, that TACC and lane keeping significantly reduces my mental load while driving, especially for long periods of time. Highway driving constantly requires you to center the car, and something that does that for you makes doing the rest of the driving (watching out for traffic issues, construction management, etc) much much easier in my view. That's only level 2, however. It still requires you to pay attention, it's just a different kind of attention in my view.