DETROIT — Autopilot, ProPilot, CoPilot.
Automakers have many names for new and enhanced driver-assist systems, but no safety or performance standards to follow as they roll out the most significant changes to vehicle technology in a generation.
Spurred by Tesla Inc.’s success and eager to start profiting from billions spent on autonomous driving research, automakers are accelerating plans to automate routine driving tasks such as cruising on a highway and make them widely available within five years, industry executives said.
Most traditional automakers until recently had resisted allowing drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel for extended periods, concerned about product liability claims. Now, the latest driver-assist systems offer a new and sorely needed source of profit for automakers and suppliers such as Aptiv, especially when this technology is packaged with other extra-cost options.
“Consumers are willing to pay extra — sometimes a lot of money — for advanced technology and features that are convenience-oriented rather than strictly focused on safety,” IHS principal analyst Jeremy Carlson said.
To address concerns about liability, some automakers are installing cameras inside vehicles, along with warning systems, to ensure drivers remain attentive and ready to take over manual control when necessary.
Regulatory vacuum
Critics charge that the technology to automate highway driving, parking and navigation in stop-and-go traffic is being deployed in a regulatory vacuum where an absence of industrywide standards and common terminology creates confusion about what the systems can safely do.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a written response to Reuters, said it is still conducting research and gathering data on hands-free technologies, which it said are “not sufficiently mature” to require formal federal standards.
Former NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind said the industry may need to further develop the technology before federal mandates are needed, but agreed things are confusing for consumers.
“If people don’t know what they’ve got and how it actually operates, that’s a safety issue,” added Rosekind, who is chief safety innovation officer at self-driving startup Zoox, which is being acquired by Amazon.com Inc.
Jason Levine, head of the Center for Auto Safety advocacy group, said NHTSA should develop minimum performance standards.
“Even if consumers know what the feature is supposed to do, there’s no standard to be sure it’s even performing as advertised,” he said.
Tesla’s Autopilot, one of the industry’s first semi-automated driving systems, has been criticized by the National Transportation Safety Board for allowing drivers to turn their attention from the road, leading to deadly accidents. NHTSA has investigated 15 crashes since 2016 involving Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot.
