Driverless cars keep running into roadblocks — and bicyclists — so automakers are doubling down on partially automated systems, betting that customers will appreciate the novelty and convenience of a bunch of features that steer, accelerate, and brake for them.
Technology
A top auto safety group tested 14 partial automated systems — only one passed
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24822928/cadillac_escalade_super_cruise.jpeg?ssl=1 "A top auto safety group tested 14 partial automated systems — only one passed")
The industry insists these systems are safe; some executives even go so far as to call them safer than human driving. But a top consumer safety organization argues there is little evidence to support these claims.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a 65-year-old independent group that tests and evaluates new cars, released its first ranking system for partially automated systems. Overall, it tested 14 different systems. Eleven were rated poor, two were marginal, and only one passed.
Eleven were rated poor, two were marginal, and only one passed
Before we get to the ranking, its important to define what we’re talking about when we say “partially automated.” These are not self-driving cars; drivers are still expected to watch the road and monitor the system. And they need to stand ready to take control of the vehicle when something goes wrong.
Moreover, these are not advanced driver assist systems, also known as ADAS, which IIHS defines as safety features like automatic emergency braking, blindspot detection, and lane departure prevention. “Partial automation is a convenience feature,” IIHS spokesperson Joe Young said in an email, “and while others may lump it in with ADAS, we’re continuing to draw a distinction by referring to it separately.”
Partial automated systems use sensors and cameras to relieve drivers of some of the responsibility of operating the vehicle. They include features like adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assistance, and automated lane changing. Some even allow drivers to remove their hands from the steering wheel under certain conditions.
The problem is drivers tend to develop an overreliance on these systems even after a short period of use. And when it’s time to take back control of the vehicle, their reaction times are slower than what’s considered safe.
“These results are worrying, considering how quickly vehicles with these partial automation systems are hitting our roadways,” IIHS president David Harkey said in a statement.
IIHS tested partial automated systems in 14 vehicles, including popular ones like Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, GM’s Super Cruise, and Ford’s BlueCruise. Only one was found to be acceptable: Lexus’ Teammate with Advanced Drive. Two were rated marginal: GM’s Super Cruise and Nissan’s ProPilot Assist. And the rest, including BlueCruise and Tesla’s FSD, were rated poor. (The full ranking is here.)
The reasons were myriad, but overall the systems that were rated poor were found to be easily tricked and bad at monitoring driver attention. Some would work even when the driver wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
IIHS utilized a number of methods to trick these partial automated systems, including draping a cheesecloth over the driver’s head to obscure their face from in-car cameras and sensors, and attaching ankle weights to the steering wheel to simulate the driver’s hands on the wheel.
The group put the vehicles through a battery of tests through multiple trials, most of which took place on a closed course. Some performance categories were weighted more heavily than others. And IIHS notes that some of the vehicles in its fleet received software updates during the course of testing that included improvements to the partial automated system. (For example, the group tested Tesla’s Autopilot before it was updated after a recent voluntary recall.)
IIHS says there is a silver lining: no single vehicle performed well across the board, but all did well in at least one category.
“That means the fixes are readily available and, in some cases, may be accomplished with nothing more than a simple software update,” Harkey said.
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When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn’t initially know what to believe. “There’s a lot of misinformation about data centers,” she said. “Google has denied taking that land.”
Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, “and Google is just a big, unnamed power user.” The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood’s watershed to meet municipal needs as its population — 16,010 as of the 2020 census — grows. But critics, including environmentalists, say the city is trying to secure more water for Google, which has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that already consumes about one-third of the city’s water supply.
This controversy made Reksopuro curious about the backlash to data centers being built in other communities. So Reksopuro, a student at the University of Washington who studies the connections between tech and public policy, decided to map it out. Using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, she built an interactive map tracking AI policy around the world. She designed it to be simple enough for anyone to use. “I wanted it to be something that my younger sisters could play through and explore to understand what are the data centers in the area and what’s actually being done about it,” Reksopuro said. She hoped to shift their opinions that way, “instead of like, through TikTok.”
Four times a day, the map searches for new sources and checks them against the existing database Reksopuro built out. “Once it does that, it will write a new summary, add it to the news feed, and populate it on the sidebar,” she said. “I wanted it to be self-updating, since I’m also a student.”
Reksopuro isn’t against data centers, but she thinks tech giants benefit from a lack of transparency around data center policies. “Right now, it’s this really opaque thing — and all of a sudden, there’s a facility,” she said. “I think that if people knew about data centers beforehand, it would give them leverage. They would be able to negotiate: ask for job training programs, tax revenue, environmental monitoring, things to improve their community.”
UCF commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield (University of Central Florida via Storyful)
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Microsoft Edge is adding a new feature that will allow its Copilot AI chatbot to gather information from all of your open tabs. When you start a conversation with Copilot, you can ask the chatbot questions about what’s in your tabs, compare the products you’re looking at, summarize your open articles, and more.
In its announcement, Microsoft says you can “select which experiences you want or leave off the ones you don’t.” The company is retiring Copilot Mode as well, which could similarly draw information from your tabs but offered some agentic features, like the ability to book a reservation on your behalf. Microsoft has since folded these agentic capabilities into its “Browse with Copilot” tool.
Several other AI features are coming to Edge, including an AI-powered “Study and Learn” mode that can turn the article you’re looking at into a study session or interactive quiz. There’s a new tool that turns your tabs into AI-powered podcasts as well, similar to what you’d find on NotebookLM, and an AI writing assistant that will pop up when you start entering text on a webpage.
You can also give Copilot permission to access your browsing history to provide more “relevant, high-quality answers,” according to Microsoft. Copilot in Edge on desktop and mobile will come with “long-term memory” as well, which can tailor its responses based on your previous conversations. And, when you open up a new tab, you’ll see a redesigned page that combines chat, search, and web navigation, along with the Journeys feature, which uses AI to organize your browsing history into categories that you can revisit.
Meanwhile, an update to Edge’s mobile app will allow you to share your screen with Copilot and talk through the questions about what you’re seeing. Microsoft says you’ll see “clear visual cues” when Copilot is active, “so you know when it’s taking an action, helping, listening, or viewing.”
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