Expert: Put The Brakes On Autonomous Cars

Volvo Ericsson streaming video concept (Credit: Volvo)

Autonomous vehicle tech is really cool, except in reality. Simulators you see online, funny YouTube videos of guys reading their tablet behind the wheel of a Tesla, slick marketing from Nissan – it’s all fake.

At least to an extent it is, according to none other than a real robotics researcher. Automotive News spoke with Missy Cummings, an engineering professor at Duke, who thinks autonomous tech just isn’t ready to take over the roadways.

Before you start doing a celebration dance, Cummings isn’t saying self-driving cars aren’t coming. She just thinks the time is not here yet. Lest you think Cummings is some sort of wuss, she was a fighter pilot back in the day. Also, she’s the director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke, so you could say she knows a thing or two about this stuff.

Basically, it comes down to driving being really complicated. Humans can barely hack it as is, but robots just aren’t ready for it. Cummings says that driving is more complex than flying. Think about it: if you have some idiot in a Prius going slow, a kid darting out in the road chasing a ball or some lunatics doing a Chinese fire drill in the middle of traffic, you have to know what to do.

Despite Tesla’s and Google’s big dreams, you probably won’t see everyone kicking back behind the wheel by 2020. Sorry, but we humans still are valuable, at least for now.