Boeing Software Problems Await Autonomous Motor Vehicle Age
Well Cindy, the obvious problem is right here in the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System module. But we didn’t need that anyway.
Did we really believe that surrendering vehicle control to a complex of bits and bytes was going to solve all our motor vehicle safety problems? Just look in the air for a clue as to what’s too come.
In grandpa’s days, when the steering wheel did not turn the wheels we simply took our Model-T to Joe the mechanic. He tightened the screw and the steering was perfect again. And when the hand brake was loose Joe just tightened the wire and we could stop again. Joe knew everything.
Now, when our vehicle stalls we take our vehicle to a manufacturer’s dealer. He pugs a computer into the diagnostic link connector and tells us that there is nothing wrong, except that a faulty wheel speed sensor, that is unrelated to the stalling, needs replacement. When our vehicle continues to stall and we continue to receive notice that everything is OK we continue to drive. Thankfully we will not fall out of the sky. But we could be struck by a high speed semi while we’re stopped in the middle of the freeway. Or many of our safety features like airbags may not function even though we are involved in a major crash. As other vehicles also continue to stall we remain puzzled but have no help or solution. Fatalities begin to mount as the stallings continue. Joe is now 105 years old and his tightening the screw or wire will not solve the dilemma.
Little do we know that the manufacturer has located a problem in the size of a little screw in the ignition switch. An item of minimal cost. The screw is quietly replaced at the dealership during regular maintenance activities and suddenly the stallings begin to disappear. Leaving many unexplained deaths, many that are not publicized and remain unknown to the general public. We move on.
Now comes the dawning of the driverless vehicle. Everything becomes surrendered to sensors, modules and computers. Steering wheels and brakes are not connected to the wheels. A sensor detects an issue of concern and the calculations inside a module are sent to a central brain that controls what actions are required. As guests inside our hotel vehicle we simply sit and read our newspaper on our tablet while wondering if the coffeemaker is supposed to pop out of the side of the left or right door. With that annoying human driver gone there will no longer be any mistakes as the electronic software will replace the human brain. This is the vision that propaganda has delivered to the travelling public.
Yet earlier this year a very sophisticated Boeing 737 Max 8 came crashing to the ground in Ethiopia. A Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, is preliminarily believed to be the problem due the appearance of a battle between the pilot and MCAS causing an unusual pattern of motion and speed just before the plane came down. A similar pattern was found in an earlier, Lion Airlines crash in October of 2018.
The average passenger sitting in the seat of a Boeing 737 has absolutely no clue as to what anything is or how it works nor does he/she know anyone who knows anything. It is only a handful of specialists, primarily at Boeing, who know. Or who think that they know.
When motor vehicle collisions occur in the future this is what we can expect. A society where no one knows what caused a collision. In the mass of commuters there will only be a very few specialists working at a manufacturer’s lab who will have some idea. Government regulators will have to develop ways of calming the public with assurances that they have everything under control and are conducting deep studies that cannot be fully explained.
Whether such a horror develops and the degree to which it is tolerated depends largely on how we decide to move forward. There are huge hypothetical benefits in cost savings and life savings that can be achieved with various automation of transportation systems. There are also great challenges that are emerging with respect to public monitoring of how those changes evolve.We if are unwilling to accept that nothing is infallible and are willing to publicly expose those failings, we can achieve our solutions much quicker and earlier. Unfortunately our history of hiding whenever something goes wrong can make this transition far more difficult than it needs to be.
Lack of Proper Sight Lines At Humboldt Broncos Site Being Ignored
There is no question that Jaskirat Singh’s mistake of driving his truck through a stop sign was a major causal factor in the deaths of the multiple occupants of the Humboldt Broncos bus on a Saskatchewan intersection on 6 April of 2018. That point has been the focus of almost all discussion about the tragedy. What is remarkable is how an equally important causal factor has been ignored.
The intersection sight lines were clearly inadequate. A simple reference to any roadway design manual would illuminate that point. It is also undeniable that, if the sight lines had been as recommended then a collision would likely have been avoided, even though Singh’s truck travelled through the stop sign. These facts are clear.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Transportation employs educated specialists in transportation safety like any other government agencies. Undoubtedly they would have been aware of the standards regarding intersection sight lines. They most certainly would have been aware that the sight lines at the Humboldt Broncos intersection were improper. Yet they did nothing to correct that defect.
So here lies the paradox: There has been a year’s worth of demonizing Mr. Singh for the mistake he made. Yet the conscious decision made by unknown persons with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Transportation not to correct the safety hazard at the Humboldt Broncos intersection has been meet with silence. So why is it that one individual whose actions caused multiple fatalities receives an eight year prison sentence, yet another individual whose actions also caused multiple fatalities is not even identified? Is it because those unidentified persons in the Saskatchewan Ministry of Transportation are employed by a powerful agency that is part of the Saskatchewan government? There is no other explanation that can explain these unjust circumstances.
Automatic Emergency Braking Voluntarily Installed By Manufacturers
Federal Safety Agencies claim that is it is faster to get Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) installed voluntarily than by being forced by legislation.
Could this fatal rear-end impact of two trucks on Highway 401 near Chatham earlier this month have been avoided if trucks were equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking?
According to a 2015 voluntary agreement among twenty manufacturers, ten of those manufacturers installed AEB technology in more than half of the vehicles that were manufactured between September, 2017 and end of August, 2018. Tesla has reported that all of its vehicles are equipped with the technology. Yet some manufacturers have fallen far behind. Ford, Mitsubishi and Porsche equip less than 10% of their vehicles with AEB and General Motors is only at 24%.
There is still no word about equipping large trucks with AEB. Such an installation would be expected to see the largest benefit. Given the difficulties that large trucks have in braking compared to light vehicles, and given the number of instances on major expressways where heavy trucks end up crashing into stopped vehicles, it would be expected that AEB could be very effective in reducing major, fatality producing collisions.
Although the technology is in its early stages it could be that AEB might make a very large improvement in road safety. What remains are questions about its ability to reliably detect instances where automatic braking is required. We may not see those instances of technology failure until enough vehicles are so equipped and instances of its use are better known. There are well known previous instances where tweaking of a safety feature was required after it had enveloped a large percentage of the vehicle population. The most notable is the required depowering of airbags in the late 1990s where many fatalities occurred before changes could be made. Hopefully such a problem will not recur with AEB.
Vehicle In Ditch Causes Massive Police Reaction
There must be some further reason why a massive police presence was required when a vehicle was found stopped in a Highway 3 ditch near Windsor yesterday.
The Windsor Star newspaper reported that two occupants fled after their vehicle “rollover” in a ditch of Highway 3 near Walker Road near Windsor, Ontario. The newspaper showed that a massive presence of police, including search dogs and an emergency response team, was engaged in locating the fleeing persons.
The problem is that photos of the vehicle did not show that it had rolled over. There was no damage to the typical areas of the vehicle that would signify such a rollover. If a rollover occurred it would have to be a very minor, low-speed incident. If such a massive response was needed for every situation where a single vehicle travelled into a ditch we would certainly run out of police to handle any other incident.
It would seem that the reason for the large police response was something beyond the simple traffic mishap. But that fact has not been disclosed.
Vehicle Fire Warning Continues
Gorski Consulting has posted a number of warnings about the apparent increase in the numbers of fires occurring in motor vehicle collisions, or sometimes when vehicles are not even being driven. The latest incident on King Street in Toronto had significant consequences as a driver sustained life-threatening, burn injuries.
This was a photo posted on Twitter by @mrriecker showing the vehicle that caught fire after striking a light standard on King Street in Toronto
The collision reportedly occurred at 0630 hours this morning, March 17, 2017 when the front end off a Nissan Altima struck a light standard. The driver became trapped in the vehicle as it caught fire. There were conflicting reports that police were able to pull the male driver out of the vehicle while other reports indicated that the male was already out of the vehicle by the time police arrived.
Vehicle fires have been occurring with unusual regularity lately and in most cases occupants have been able to escape burning vehicle without too much harm. The present incident demonstrates that this luck cannot continue. There must be more done to understand why and how these fires start when the circumstances often do not warrant such consequences. Both Canadian and U.S. safety standards require a certain degree of fire prevention after a vehicle has been involved in high severity impact. It is clear that the severity of collisions in which fires are occurring is lower than what the standards require.
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