{"id":12837,"date":"2018-07-14T01:32:41","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T01:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=12837"},"modified":"2018-07-15T01:36:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T01:36:02","slug":"even-self-driving-cars-need-driver-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/even-self-driving-cars-need-driver-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Even self-driving cars need driver education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johanna Zmud<\/a>, Texas A&M University <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

What do self-driving cars and teenage drivers have in common?<\/p>\n

Experience. Or, more accurately, a lack of experience.<\/p>\n

Teenage drivers \u2013 novice drivers of any age, actually \u2013 begin with little knowledge<\/a> of how to actually operate a car\u2019s controls, and how to handle various quirks of the rules of the road. Their first step in learning typically consists of fundamental instruction conveyed by a teacher. With classroom education, novice drivers are, in effect, programmed with knowledge of traffic laws and other basics. They then learn to operate a motor vehicle by applying that programming and progressively encountering a vast range of possibilities on actual roadways. Along the way, feedback they receive \u2013 from others in the vehicle as well as the actual experience of driving \u2013 helps them determine how best to react and function safely.<\/p>\n

The same is true for autonomous vehicles. They are first programmed with basic knowledge. Red means stop; green means go, and so on. Then, through a form of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, self-driving autos draw from both accumulated experiences and continual feedback to detect patterns, adapt to circumstances, make decisions and improve performance.<\/p>\n

For both humans and machines, more driving will ideally lead to better driving. And in each case, establishing mastery takes a long time. Especially as each learns to address the unique situations that are hard to anticipate without experience \u2013 a falling tree, a flash flood, a ball bouncing into the street, or some other sudden event. Testing, in both controlled and actual environments, is critical to building know-how. The more miles that driverless cars travel, the more quickly their safety improves. And improved safety performance will influence public acceptance of self-driving car deployment \u2013 an area in which I specialize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starting with basic skills<\/h2>\n

Experience, of course, must be built upon a foundation of rudimentary abilities \u2013 starting with vision. Meeting that essential requirement is straightforward for most humans, even those who may require the aid of glasses or contact lenses. For driverless cars, however, the ability to see is an immensely complex process<\/a> involving multiple sensors and other technological elements:<\/p>\n