LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
HUFFINGTON
09.29.13
Caution:
Driver
Onboard
N THIS WEEK’S issue,
Bianca Bosker investigates a fascinating
new technology — selfdriving cars — and the risks they
may pose. She finds that engineers
have dealt with the technological
questions, producing efficient cars
that can run capably on their own.
The biggest danger, it turns out, is
not the cars, but ourselves.
“There are going to be times
where the driver has to take over,”
ART STREIBER
I
as Clifford Nass, a Stanford University professor and director of
the automobile-focused Revs Program, puts it. “And that turns out
to be by far the most dangerous
and totally understudied issue.”
This “hand-off” from car to human hinges on the driver being
mentally aware and focused enough
to take over when the car signals
that human attention is needed. As
Bianca writes, the driver’s “reaction speed might be slower than
if she’d been driving all along, she
might be distracted by the email
she was writing or she might
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