It's going to be fascinating to see the level 3 autonomy in action. Especially how it monitors the driver when its driving on its own.
https://www.teslarati.com/rivian-self-driving-patent-driver-monitoring-system/The monitoring process is described to work as follows:
To accomplish these steps, Rivian proposes in the application to pair electronic devices that can track and provide driver data to the automated driving program, e.g., general smartphones or tablets, finesses trackers, and electronically connected medical devices. If a driver is watching a movie or has vital signs indicating sleep (breathing rate, pulse, etc.), the vehicle would know the driver is not ready to resume control if needed and respond appropriately.
- Connect, by vehicle, to wireless device of vehicle occupant.
- Receive, by vehicle, signal from wireless device indicative of activity of the vehicle occupant and processing the signal to determine level of awareness of vehicle occupant.
- Determine whether level of awareness of vehicle occupant satisfies a threshold.
- Generate, by vehicle, alert based upon whether level of awareness of vehicle occupant satisfies threshold.
Also described in the patent application are enforcement ideas such as a series of touch screen prompts requiring a response, and in the event of no response, the vehicle would pull over and stop. If an emergency situation were detected via the connected medical devices, the car would pull over and call 911. Along with a fitness tracker, other medical devices suggested for use in the application are glucose monitors, blood oxygen monitors, and breathalyzers.
Even when it comes out, there will be nuances like what happened with Tesla's system.Ditto ... really curious on how it will monitor the driver while in FSD mode. However, it's my understanding (some time ago from a Rivian press release or interview comment I believe) that each Rivian EAV at launch will be "capable" of Level 3 (hardware, not software) but will be Level 2 ready, meaning it will be able to perform functions considered Level 2. I believe it was either Charles or one of the head guys of autonomy (perhaps Oliver?) at Rivian that said they will use the Level 2 data collected to help them develop the Level 3 autonomy. He didn't say how long, as you probably would expect, but if that's the case, one could imagine it will be a few years from now (2019) before it's ready for prime time. ... And probably a little longer than that for me before I let my EAV drive itself.![]()
So in the meantime, better put on a few more pots of coffee while we wait.![]()