Plans for self-driving cars have pitfall: the human brain

Experts say the development of self-driving cars over the coming decade depends on an unreliable assumption by many automakers: that the humans in them will be ready to step in and take control if the car's systems fail. Instead, experience with automation in other modes of transportation like aviation and rail suggests that the strategy will lead to more deaths like that of a Florida Tesla driver in May. Decades of research shows that people have a difficult time keeping their minds on boring tasks like monitoring systems that rarely fail and hardly ever require them to take action. Tesla will release a software update to improve the Autopilot system in its cars following a crash that killed a driver, founder Elon Musk has revealed. The electric car manufacturer's chief executive said he had been talking to the German supplier of the radar systems used in the vehicles about ways of improving the feature.