Does anyone have any ideas for
a better monitoring system? C&D is pushing for seat sensors which would be easily fooled too.
As I see it you have several requirements that need to be met, not that they are all the car software's responsibility:
- Person in the driver's seat is a human
- Driver is legally licensed to drive a car. Also legally allowed to drive THIS car, and is not legally impaired
- Not really anything the car is likely to be able to monitor
- Driver is alert and responds to nudges
- Driver is fully monitoring the driving environment and prepared to take over immediately
- Failure to obey the rules would be as bad as drinking & driving or dangerous driving
All the systems apparently don't make it past #1,
they can all be fooled, and don't seem to care for a period of several seconds to several minutes whether there is a driver there or not. With careful fooling some can drive indefinitely.
Ignore #2, the car doesn't care. Though I still think having to actually insert a physical key, turn it, and operate some of the mechanically-stiff brake/shifter/steering wheel lock functions in some cars does essentially ensure that the driver is at least somewhat trained and likely older than 10 years old. Simply having a key card device somewhere near the car, shutting the door, clicking the belt, and touching the pedals is too easy in my opinion.
You should have to do some actions that are difficult and require some strength to get a car moving. But that's not the direction we seem to be going in.
#3: Steering wheel nudges on cue and other wheel sensing, if effective, at least shows there is a driver responding to the nudges. Eye tracking and other sleep sensors, if effective, show that the driver is at least looking forward (even if they are watching a movie on the iPad on the dashboard).
These systems are currently ineffective as they can be fooled too easily.
#4: I don't know how you can judge if someone is actually watching what is going on. Perhaps there could be an eye-tracking sensor tied to a projected blip on the screen. You have to look at the blip and follow it briefly. Randomly timed and randomly positioned but no more than a few minutes apart. Periodically the car could announce itself as dropping out of autosteer or autospeed and the driver has to drive for a period of time. Maybe the driver has to press a randomly specified touchpad or control. Mix it up. Do it often, but
not during any intersections or driving maneuvers so as not to endanger the drive. Would any of this actually ensure the driver is paying attention though? Perhaps randomly startle the driver by simulating a rumble strip, nothing like a dose of adrenaline to make you pay attention.
#5: Driving while fooling the systems, or allowing unlicensed people/pets to take the car would have harsh penalties akin to the worst driving offenses so people are deterred from doing it.