• Opinion
Consumers should question the callousness of automakers using a human driver as a “component” of their safeguards.
What’s at stake:
If you think a faulty sensor triggered a BMW to automatically accelerate to 110mph on a U.K. country road, think again. The problem is systemic. The incident exposes the inability of many carmakers to understand the relationship among individual modules to ensure system-level safety.
By now, we hope a Sunday Times of London report, BMW cruise control ‘took over and tried to reach 110mph‘, has become required reading for every system engineer developing AI-embedded ADAS vehicles, and for consumers eager to embrace automated vehicle features. The story’s alarming subhead reads, “A motorist was sent hurtling over the limit when his car’s technology misread signs.”