Snoozing drivers Tesla19 Jun 2019 22:16
'On the other hand, the most advanced driver-assistance systems include sophisticated driver-monitoring systems. Cadillac's Super Cruise, for example, uses driver-facing cameras to verify that the driver is awake and paying attention to the road. If it detects that a driver isn't paying attention, it will alert the driver and eventually bring the car to a stop. Subaru recently introduced a similar technology called Driver Focus.
Tesla cars try to determine if the driver is holding the wheel by measuring the torque on the steering wheel. This is better than nothing; if a Tesla driver lets go of the steering wheel, the system will flash warnings and eventually bring the car to a stop.
However, there are ways to defeat this—like attaching a weighted object to the steering wheel. And it's possible for someone to keep their hands on the wheel while they drift off to sleep. Tesla's vehicles also give drivers a relatively long time to put their hands back on the wheel—around 30 seconds in recent versions of the software, though it depends on speed and traffic conditions.
So we shouldn't assign too much blame to Tesla for sleeping-driver problems. Drivers fall asleep in every car model, and Autopilot has probably prevented some crashes that would have occurred without it.
At the same time, there is clearly room for improvement here. Tesla—and other carmakers building driver-assistance systems—could follow the lead of GM and Subaru and add eye-tracking technology to make sure drivers are actually paying attention to the road.'
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/06/people-keep-spotting-teslas-on-the-freeway-with-snoozing-drivers/
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