The American Automobile Association (AAA) tests show some manufacturer's vehicle technology lacks the ability to spot cyclists at four-way crossings. The Association tested autonomous vehicles
from Subaru, Tesla, and Hyundai. The auto industry wants to roll out self-driving cars, but proving their safety first seems to be a challenging task. Jerry
has everything you need to know about this test-gone-wrong. AAA's safety test reveals major problems
According to Fender Bender
, the test results of the AAA road test state that one of the three vehicles tested failed to detect the cyclist. The test used a closed course to observe the results of each vehicle's autonomous driving technology when a cyclist crossed the test vehicle's travel lane. Out of the companies tested—Subaru, Tesla, Hyundai—the Subaru failed the automation test. This is surprising, considering Subaru's well-known for its high safety ratings. The 2021 Subaru Forester's "EyeSight" driving assistant feature failed to acknowledge the cyclist, neither offering an alert nor initiating braking when the cyclist crossed in front of the vehicle.
The Tesla 2020 Tesla Model 3's "Autopilot" driving assistant and the 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe's "Highway Driving Assist" passed the test by detecting the cyclist. Both vehicles responded by initiating emergency braking.
AAA tested each vehicle five times for a total of 15 runs. A collision occurred 33% of the time, or five out of the 15 trials. The organization also tested each vehicle's capability to recognize a potential head-on collision and found that all three vehicles failed to recognize an oncoming automobile in its travel lane.
According to its findings, automotive manufacturers need to refine ADA systems to perform better in edge-case scenarios.
Legitimacy of the AAA test
AAA frequently conducts road tests of vehicles, especially their safety features, by using closed-course testing. AAA used the official Euro NCAP cyclist—a dummy developed to represent an average European adult male riding a standard-sized bicycle.
The dummy consists of both the faux human and a test cycle with rotating wheels. The test cyclist system uses a micro-Doppler radar system and infrared sensors, plus other radar, lidar, and a camera to document findings.
The automotive organization also tested each of the three cars with test drivers at the wheel, with measurements taken by the same types of monitoring devices.
Do safety groups want driverless autos?
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association
(NHTSA), self-driving vehicles will hit the road in 2025 at the earliest. The NHTSA knows about the problems with some manufacturers' advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAs) and that the vehicles can't safely self-propel yet. Even the assistant technologies prove iffy, and AAA's director of automotive engineering Greg Brannon says, "spotty performance is the norm rather than the exception." Even the best ADA systems need a situationally aware driver at all times.
MORE: Autopilot vs. Full-Self-driving
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