Google famously wants to build a self-driving car so reliable it won’t even have a steering wheel. But for now, even Google’s prototype cars on California roads still allow both autonomous and manual-drive modes. How, then, does Google plan to handle the robot-human handoff?
A U.S. patent just issued to the company suggests that switching from one mode to the other might involve rather more than just pressing a button. In “Engaging and Disengaging for Autonomous Driving”, granted in July, Google human factors engineer Brian Cullinane presents a system that could make it harder to persuade a self-driving car to move than it would be to just drive it yourself.
The patent proposes a checklist the smart car might follow after the driver selects autonomous driving. First it would check whether it’s safe to switch modes. This could include measuring the distance to neighboring or oncoming vehicles, detecting whether the road is paved, unobstructed and wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other, and whether any maneuvers are imminently required. (Some people might be tempted to hit the self-driving button when they’re about to crash, in an attempt to shift legal liability to the robot driver).
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