Drivers Quickly Push Limits Of Partial Automation Systems

Partial automation systems such as Ford’s BlueCruise, General Motors’ Super Cruise, and Tesla’s Autopilot/Full Self-Driving features have come under heavy fire as of late, and for a number of reasons. Most of these reasons revolve around misuse by users, however, as automakers are typically quick to note that even though these systems can perform many functions for us, drivers still have to pay attention and be ready to take over if needed – and that fact is now being highlighted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

New research from the IIHS – conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab – found that when using partial automation, drivers are more likely to multitask and do things like eat food or check their phones when those systems are activated, and that tendency only grows over time as users become more comfortable with those systems. Additionally, drivers were also quick to learn how to trick partial automation systems and avoid escalated warnings or complete disengagement.

This study first monitored the driving behavior of 29 volunteers supplied with a 2017 Volvo S90 sedan equipped with Pilot Assist over a four-week period, examining how likely drivers were to engage in non-driving activities when using the automation on highways relative to driving unassisted, and then evaluated how this relationship changed over time. Regardless of the version of the system used, all three groups of drivers engaged in distracting visual-manual activities, including eating, grooming, and using electronics, more often when using Pilot Assist than while driving without it. This was true whether they used the feature a lot or hardly at all.

In a second study, a different group of IIHS and AgeLab researchers examined how the driving behavior of 14 people who had never used Tesla’s Autopilot or any other partial automation system changed over a month of driving a 2020 Tesla Model 3. Unlike the Volvo study, this one focused on how often the drivers triggered the system’s initial attention reminders, escalated warnings and emergency slowdown, and lockout procedures. Over 12,000 miles, those users triggered 3,858 attention-related warnings.

Though Ford’s BlueCruise remains a highly-rated system, IIHS recently slapped it with a “poor” rating, and has long been pushing for increased federal regulation of partial autonomy in general. Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating a pair of deadly crashes that occurred with BlueCruise activated – one of which has resulted in a DUI homicide charge for the driver.