EuroWire March 2016

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March 2016 48
Automotive
California answers an important question
about self-driving cars: exactly how often
has a human been required to seize control?
Disengagement is the o cial term for the failure of an
autonomous vehicle to do its job, requiring human intervention
to avert an accident or other threat. Recently, car makers testing
such vehicles in California submitted “disengagement reports” to
the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Stephanie Mlot of PCMag summarised the information provided
by Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Tesla, and others. (“How
Are Those Self-Driving Car Tests Going in California? Now We
Know,” 13th January)
Ms Mlot turned rst to Google, which has logged the most
autonomous miles in its home state of California and considers
disengagements a normal part of the testing process.
While these events may number in the “many thousands”
annually, the Web giant told PCMag, “the vast majority are
considered routine and not related to safety.”
† Speci cally, Google reported 272 instances between
September 2014 and November 2015 in which a technology
glitch forced the relief driver to take control. Average
response time was 0.84 seconds. Over the 14-month test
period the company counted 69 events in which safe
operation of the vehicle required disengagement.
Google asserted that its objective was not to minimise
disengagements but to gather as much data as possible.
Safety issues identi ed through disengagements are
resolved, the company told Ms Mlot, “by re ning our
software, rmware or hardware and incorporating those
changes across our entire eet.”
† Tesla, also California-based, recorded zero auto-
nomous-mode disengagements – the only reporting
manufacturer to make that boast.
† The other luxury car maker on the California DMV list,
Germany’s Mercedes-Benz, disclosed 967 manual and
automatic disengagements over 15 months. Not far behind
was Bosch, with 625 total disengagements in 14 months.
The third German company reporting, Volkswagen, disclosed
1,087 and 2,573 disengagements, respectively, for its test
vehicles Igor and Jack.
† Britain’s Delphi Automotive reported 405 disengagements,
attributed mainly to poor lane markings and ambiguous
tra c lights. All interventions documented in its report were
executed in under one second.
Delphi provided a glimpse of the standby operator with
“one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the
auto/manual toggle switch on the vehicle’s centre console.
Pressing the auto/manual switch kills all power to the
automated system actuators and allows the operator to
instantaneously take full control.
† All four of Nissan’s autonomous vehicles recorded a total of
only 106 disengagements in seven months. The company’s
report to the DMV excluded the period April to September
2015, presumably marking a hiatus in road testing.
BMW, Cruise Automation, Ford and Honda – which launched
autonomous vehicles on California streets in 2015 – are
required to submit their rst disengagement report to the
DMV by 1st January, 2017.
Now for the hard part: struggling to satisfy
the regulators, Volkswagen must also
redeem itself with the American car buyer
With its admission, in September 2015, to having cheated on
diesel emissions tests in the United States, Volkswagen set o
the biggest crisis in its 70-year history; and the end is not in sight
for the company’s troubles with federal and state authorities.
At the same time, VW’s relations with its dealers in the USA are
fraying, sales have plummeted, and its ambitious plans for
growth in the American market have had to be tabled.
But the German automaker faces an even more urgent challenge.
In what the New York Times calls “perhaps the ultimate hard sell,”
Volkswagen must repair the broken trust with American buyers of
its cars – a remarkably faithful cohort, up to now.
As reported by the Times’s Bill Vlasic and Mary M Chapman, the
campaign was launched at the North American International
Auto Show with the rst public appearance in the USA by
VW’s chief executive, Matthias Müller. (“Volkswagen Starts Down
Di cult Road of Winning Back Americans,” 10th January)
“We know we deeply disappointed our customers, the
responsible government bodies, and the general public here in
the US,” Mr Müller said on the eve of the auto show in Detroit.
“I apologise for what went wrong at Volkswagen. We are totally
committed to making things right.”
Transatlantic Cable
Image: www.bigstockphoto.com Photographer Zsolt Ercsel