Self-Driving Cars: What it’s like to ride in a self-driving car in 2016
Four or 5 months ago I woke up early in the morning to drive to a deposition in the north part of Houston. I was on I-45, one of the busiest highways running through Houston, during rush hour traffic. As I was driving north on 45 to my deposition, somebody honked at me. Loudly. Like laying-both-arms-on-the-horn loud.
Normally, this sort of thing would irritate me, particularly early in the morning when I didn’t do anything to deserve being honked at. “What a loser!” my reactive mind would have immediately thought.
This time was different. I wasn’t irritated at all. “Jokes on you sucker!” I thought, and laughed.
Why? The person was honking at a computer. What an idiot. Who honks at a computer?
You see, I had my Tesla Model S on “autopilot” mode when that idiot honked at me.
The Tesla Model S autopilot mode controls the speed as well as the steering of the car, and works particularly well in highway settings. I wasn’t driving to my deposition at all, my car was driving me to my deposition.
And some moron was honking at a computer.
Auto-pilot is freaking weird
Executive summary: Auto-pilot is just brain-hurting weird at first. It will bend your mind in strange, funny ways. It’s also a very cool glimpse into the future of transportation.
Once you’ve been in a self-driving car, you’ll realize almost immediately that self-driving cars are inevitable. It’s just a matter of time.
You’ll also realize that fully autonomous, self-driving cars are not ready for prime-time yet. Partly because they don’t mix well with irrational human drivers, partly because our transportation infrastructure is embarrassingly crappy, and partly because the software hasn’t worked out the edge cases.
How it works
Here’s how it works, using this photo from one of my recent auto-pilot sessions for a guide:
If you look at the speedometer (where it indicates “70,”), there’s a blue icon on the left and a blue icon on the right. The icon on the left is your speed control, and when it’s lit up in blue that means the car is operating the accelerator and brake on its own. The silver Tesla is me, and then in front you’ll see another Tesla (every vehicle you see in your dashboard is a Tesla, although lately when I’m near a big truck I get an icon of a big Tesla-looking truck — possible Tesla future product?).
The dashboard shows you exactly what your car “sees.” And in this picture my car was “seeing” one car about 7 car lengths ahead.
You can set the “cruise control” for how far back in car lengths you want to remain from other vehicles. I set it to 7 car lengths, so even though the speed is set at 80 I’m only going 70 because my car is keeping a safe distance from the car ahead and the car ahead is going 70 (I like to set the speed slightly above the flow of traffic, then allow the car to slow down a bit so it’s moving with the flow of traffic).
The blue steering wheel on the right indicates that the car is currently steering itself.
Whenever the car senses that auto-pilot is safe, you will see a gray steering wheel icon that pops up in that location. To enable auto-steer, you flick one of the stalks on the steering wheel back twice in quick succession. Once you do that, the car takes over the steering functions.
You’ll notice that there’s a lane of traffic with blue lines bordering it on each sign. That means the car is “seeing” the lane markers clearly.
Finally, you’ll notice that there’s a speed sign icon for 60 m.p.h above and to the left of my car that looks like an actual speed sign you’d see on a roadway. What that means is that the car has “seen” a speed sign with one of its cameras and “knows” the speed limit is 60 m.p.h. (I was going with the flow of traffic on the highway which is why it shows me going 70 m.p.h.)
What its actually like for your car to drive you
Creepy. Wierd. Wildly uncomfortable. But also so very awesome.
It takes a huge leap of faith when you first start using auto-pilot. It is totally unnatural. I think this is going to be a serious obstacle to mass adoption. I am a lifelong nerd with a computer science degree and it took a big leap of faith when I first started letting the car drive me. It still takes a leap of faith although after months of auto-pilot use I’m becoming more comfortable with self-driving mode
For people who don’t trust or like technology, the leap may be too big to make.
For example, when you first start approaching another car from behind in auto-pilot mode, you wonder and worry “is this thing going to stop itself?! Oh….my……gosh….the car just stopped itself…..now it’s moving again because the car in front is moving…..oh my gosh, no way…this is just too weird.” This is what went through my mind. It still does.
Then when the auto-steer feature came out it was even more surreal. “Oh…..my……gosh……this car is literally driving itself right now and steering and I am watching my car think and this-is-so-wierd-what-happens-if-it-has-to-make-a-hard-choice-I’m-re-taking-control-but-this-is-so-fun……” was what went through my mind the first few times I let the car take control of the wheel. I still cannot get over watching my steering wheel move without my input to make turns or adjust the car into the center of the lane.
The future is here but it’s a long way off
I’ve been thinking about how to describe what it’s like to be in full auto-pilot mode.
Here’s the best way I can put it: Imagine you are riding in a machine with a brain, but a machine that’s still kind of an infant so still strikingly naive about basic decisions but also learning rapidly, and you get to watch the baby machine grow and learn right before your eyes.
That’s what it’s like. It’s like watching a baby machine learn about new things every day, make mistakes, and then never ever ever make the same mistake again. Not only do you get to watch the car “think” but if you pay close attention you get to watch the car “learn” as well.
Current limitations of self-driving cars
Auto-pilot is far from perfect. The driver has to be aware at all times. It’s just like auto-pilot in an airplane. The pilot sets the auto-pilot but he or she always has to be aware of what’s going on and prepared to take control at a moment’s notice.
In fact, the car will prompt you to pay attention or grab the steering wheel when it has trouble picking up the appropriate signals (cars in front and beside you, lane-markers unclear, etc.). It also doesn’t pick up stop signs or traffic signals — yet. It reads speed limit signs though, so stop signs and traffic signals can’t be far behind.
Auto-pilot is also going to take some time to work out all the ‘edge case’ scenarios (is that a soccer ball or the family pet darting in front of me? Do I slam on brakes or change lanes? Should I run into this school bus or run myself off this cliff?).
One of two main problems with self-driving cars, in my view (at least in the near term) is that we’ll have a mix of human-driven cars and computer-driven cars. Mixing irrational human drivers with completely “rational” computer drivers is a bad mix indeed.
Maybe more important and more problematic, however, is that a lot of our infrastructure is just downright crappy (which I guess I knew but didn’t really notice until I watched my baby robot try to pick up lane markers). A lot of our road markers, signs, and other features are basically falling apart.
Before we see widespread adoption of fully autonomous vehicles we are going to have to fix our crappy infrastructure. My best guess is that large cities will be the first to adopt self-driving fleets because they will be able to fix their infrastructure in a controlled way. It’s going to be a while until all of our roadways are up to the task of hosting self-driving cars.
In certain conditions, though, right now — and I mean right now — autopilot works remarkably well. Once you take the leap of faith necessary to let a 5,000 pound baby robot hurtle you down the highway at 70 m.p.h., you’ll find that auto-pilot works great and is extremely useful.
Self-driving fully autonomous cars are going to happen. That’s a fact. There are too many benefits to society as a whole. And it’s going to be a weird, mind-bending, but also really cool thing to watch unfold.
