challenge: "to really get the consumer to understand what the technology is and how it
works is a crucial piece."
One of the consequences of the consumer in the equation is, Stepper notes, the
importance of having psychologists on his team to help develop the human-machine
interfaces necessary, especially in SAE Level 3 automation, where there is "the expecta-
tion that the human driver will respond appropriately to a request to intervene."
In Level 4, the driver may get a "request to intervene" from the system, but may not
respond, so the system has to be able to handle "all aspects of the dynamic driving
task." Which leads to something that Stepper says is crucial for autonomous vehicles,
which is "fail operational." (This is also key for Level 3 automation.)
Stepper explains, "If something fails, the whole system needs to be operational." In
your car right now, the design is "fail safe," inasmuch as the driver is expected to step
in should there be a system failure. "If your steering boost fails," Stepper says, "you no
longer have the steering amplification. But the driver is the backup: You have to provide
more input, more force on the wheel, but you can still control the steering." This is not
necessarily the case when the vehicle is automated.
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