NASA: Tesla Autopilot System Success Should Be Combo Of Driver, Technology, Company

NASA has been studying the psychological effects of automation in their cockpits. NASA research says that a combination of three factors such as the psychological aspect of the driver, the technology, and the company may be responsible for the autopilot system.

Tesla Motors claims that the "autopilot" system in its automobiles enables drivers to lessen their responsibility while driving at the same time avoiding potential dangers on road travelled. All the claims of Tesla changed when an accident involving the Model S "autopilot" failed to recognize the tractor in front of the vehicle, also driver failed to notice the tractor ahead of time to prevent the accident from occurring.

NASA has been studying for years the psychological effects of automation in cockpits. Director of NASA Langley Research Center's Autonomy Incubator Danette Allen said that NASA may have been one of the few that has been thinking about autonomy and automation.

NASA's Human Systems Integration Division's research psychologist Stephen Casner has said that 2017 cars are equal to airplanes made in 1983.  Casner is not only referring to the basic mechanisms of the car and airplane, but also the cruise control of the car that mimics an airplane from takeoff to landing, Scientific American reported.

NASA has studied highly automated cockpits for the past decades and researchers found a significant psychological pattern. NASA found out that the more foolproof the auto's performance is, the harder it is for an on the loop supervisor to monitor it. Casner gave an example of his study where pilots are found to have trouble following accuracy with the autonomous automation when it's running.

NASA researchers say that it is difficult for humans to accurately monitor a process that is in repetition for a long time. Which was more elaborated by Robert Macworth, a psychologist in 1948, regarding the theory of "vigilance decrement" when he asked British radar operators to spend two hours watching errors and noticed the accuracy of the test subjects decreased after 30 minutes, Headline News reported.  

NASA researchers expose the contradiction in systems like Tesla's "autopilot", which leads people to zone out because of its well performance. To assure safety on the road, it also requires human attention. Even if the driver of the Model S involved in the crash was not watching Harry Potter while on "autopilot", his own psychology may have gone against him.

NASA's continued research on the psychological effects on humans and automation may help prevent future accidents from occurring as self driving cars are continuously evolving.