What We’re Reading

April 13, 2022

• Should Cars Drive Like Humans or Robots? Tesla Forces the Question (NBC News, April 9, 2022)

  In January, NHTSA announced a recall of certain 2016-2022 Tesla Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles to disable the “rolling stop” functionality that essentially allowed the vehicles to disobey stop signs, just as many human drivers do. Tesla complied with the recall through an over-the-air software update. Here, the authors raise the legitimate question of whether cars should “robotically obey traffic laws, even when human drivers sometimes break them for convenience?” To us, this also underscores the need for uniform standards and greater regulation in this space, and the legal complexities that arise when a product is expected to and does behave as a human.

• Autonomous Car Pulled Over By Cops, Makes a Run For It (Motortrend, April 11, 2022)

  This viral story is amusing, but also reveals two interesting facts: although the driverless Cruise appeared to be making a run for it, the company has clarified that the vehicle actually was pulling over to a safe location, as it was programmed to do in the event of a traffic stop; and the San Francisco police, while likely surprised to pull over a driverless vehicle, have a dedicated number to call in exactly that event.

  Read Cruise’s Twitter response, here. 

• What is Nissan ProPilot Assist 2.0? (J.D. Power, April 6, 2022) and Lexus unveils new pictures of its first all-electric car and it has a yoke steering wheel (electrek, April 5, 2022)

  Nissan and Lexus have announced exciting advances in their product offerings. 

  Nissan’s ProPilot Assist 2.0 is its “second generation” ADAS suite, intended to give Nissan and Infiniti drivers “the ability to experience restful hands-off driving when cruising on specified [mapped] sections of roadway.” While drivers still are required to remain attentive and ready to take over, the system is designed with plenty of prompts and signals, and will notify the driver when it is about to disengage. 

  Lexus’s first fully electric vehicle is the RZ 450e, based on the Toyota BZ4x.