Just this weekend, respected New York Times journalist Farhad Manjoo wrote an article about traveling in a Cadillac Escalade embedded with Super Cruise, driver-assist technology.
It erroneously stated that by deploying the technology, a driver could “twiddle your toes and put your hands in the air like you just don’t care.”
As well as being cringe-inducing, the article is littered with phrases and descriptions of Manjoo’s behavior while driving that show a fundamental lack of understanding of the abilities of driver-assist technology and what it requires of the driver.
A new name for the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets
And it comes just in the week that the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets rebranded itself as the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA).
AVIA represents a unique cross-section of the world’s most innovative technology, automotive, trucking, delivery, and rideshare companies. Its members include Argo AI, Aurora, Cruise, Embark, Ford, Kodiak, Lyft, Motional, Navya, Nuro, TuSimple, Uber, Volvo Cars, Waymo, and Zoox – Tesla is notably absent.
According to AVIA, the new name aligns with the members’ commitment to precision and consistency in how the industry, policymakers, journalists, and the public talk about autonomous driving technology.
The association recently called on all stakeholders to clearly distinguish between AVs and driver-assist to boost consumer trust and understanding.
I’ve written a whole article that deep dives into the technical differences, but the AVIA provide a nice recap:
And just a reminder, Super Cruise and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta are driver-assist programs, NOT examples of vehicle automation software. And if drivers use them with a false sense of security, the results could be devastating.
Ariel Wolf, the general counsel for AVIA, points out that if a consumer gets in a vehicle with driver-assist features but is under the false impression that the car is “self-driving” or will “drive itself,” that can lead to misuse of the technology.
We’ve seen plenty of examples of that with people driving in the back of their Teslas, making porn movies, and sleeping in their Teslas.