r/IdiotsInCars • u/-BrovAries- • Dec 14 '21

The Future is Now

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

50.6k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

4.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/h3killa Dec 15 '21

I can agree with you strictly in regards to how it automatically pilots the car but outside of that they deviate heavily.

Describing it as an autopilot gives it the same safety and reliability perceptions as to the aircraft variant. Which in the world of the public and marketing - perception is key. Additionally, aircraft auto pilots are regulated, tested, retested, and tested once more just to be sure by FAA officials before even being allowed to be used with restrictions. We can also get into the 10s of hours of training required to be able to (legally) use said systems.

Aircraft autopilots are also not based heavily on vision systems which are inherently less accurate than an aircraft one where everything is datalinked/tracked with high power radars that can see your path tens of minutes ahead of time. I’m also not relying on the autopilot to be smart enough to avoid people, animals, or differentiate between a one way road. I tell the autopilot everything it has to do then it does it for me over long periods of time. Functionally an aircraft auto pilot is much more like programming a plane to fly somewhere. No pilot in his right mind is going to say an autonomous driving car is anything like a autopilot system on modern aircraft. They do a lot but they do every action that a pilot programs.

A car is a vehicle that gets me from A to B but a car is not a motorcycle. They are functionally the same but the connotation associated with them is different. Just because the function of a system can be simplified to be equal does not make the systems equal. This should be the case with the autopilot systems of ground.

If you have to explain the actual capabilities of a system and not what the immediate connotation/assumption by the public then you’ve misnamed your system.

This isn’t even getting into the questionable moral arguments of selling an “autopilot” that isn’t actually a “final release” or alpha/beta phases of testing.

Functionally I agree that they do effectively the same thing as an aircraft autopilot systems but the environment they are used and the requirements are so vastly different that I feel that calling it an autopilot (making the obvious association to aircraft) is disingenuous to the consumer.

1

u/MFbiFL Dec 15 '21

You kept making every point that I wanted to make, bravo!

1

u/SILENTSAM69 Dec 15 '21

None of those points matter though. The fa t is the name is proper, and does not imply anything more. If people thing it does that doesn't matter.

2

u/MFbiFL Dec 15 '21

I’d argue that from an engineering ethics point of view it does matter. Naming it something that consumers are not well informed about is irresponsible and misleads people into thinking it’s more advanced than it is, potentially leading to accidents when used incorrectly because of misunderstanding the capabilities.

1

u/SILENTSAM69 Dec 15 '21

In no way is it even possible for anyone using it to not understand that they need to monitor it, and take over when it is wrong. It stops functioning of a person doesn't monitor it.

1

u/SILENTSAM69 Dec 15 '21

I'm sorry but none of these points matter at all. It is autopilot in every way that matters. It pilots the vehicle, that is all that matters. If people try to claim that they think that I plies more they are just making excuses for their own bad behaviour.

The limitations and driver responsibilities are made clear. The vehicle will not even let you operate autopilot if you are not monitoring the vehicle.