Letters | Autonomous vehicles are just not safe, whatever the claims
Readers discuss the lessons to take from a fatal crash, a plan to reduce workload at Hong Kong hospitals, and the benefits of cultural big data
The heart of this horror story lies with the failure of an “autonomous” EV to be anything near autonomous. In reality, no autonomous vehicle has full autonomy; an alert human is required at all times. This was noted in your report: “The existing systems in mainland China all require a human driver to be at the car’s controls and alert at all times.”
The article noted that the basic edition of Xiaomi’s SU7 “uses cameras, which are seen as more likely to be fooled by shadows, rain, fog and other factors”. But a smart EV that is fooled by shadows or rain should not be on the road.
The report further made the point that the crash could stimulate the adoption of a presumably superior system using lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors, which rely on laser beams to measure distances to objects. But no mention was made of the danger laser beams can present to the human eye. Autonomous vehicles using laser beam devices could catch the eyes of drivers on the opposite side of a motorway. Moreover, there was not even a hint that lidar sensors are able to handle shadows, fog and rain.
What should be highlighted is Xiaomi’s admission that the car “was travelling at 116km/h with the driver-assistance system engaged, and that the self-driving system alerted the driver to take over two seconds before the car hit a concrete barrier”. Two seconds is the blink of an eye!