Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 18

WHO'S IN THE

DRIVER'S SEAT?

Why Level 3 automated technology has failed to take hold
BY PETE BIGELOW

T

wo summers ago, Audi stood
on the precipice of an automated-driving breakthrough. Its
redesigned A8 sedans contained
a system called Traffic Jam Pilot, which,
when active, relieved human drivers
of the need to pay attention during the
tedium of stop-and-go traffic.
Trumpeted as a defining moment on
the road to full autonomy, the system
was the first in production that allowed
humans to hand driving responsibility
to the car itself for some portion of the
journey - so long as a human remained
available as a backup. In industry jargon,
such a system is classified as Level 3
automation.

18

shift * july 2019

But the milestone arrived with an
asterisk.
Audi equipped the A8 with all the components necessary to make Traffic Jam
Pilot work, but it hadn't actually enabled
the feature. Activation would come, brand
executives theorized at the time, via overthe-air updates as regulatory compliance
was ensured market by market.
Today, Traffic Jam Pilot remains dormant in the U.S. Audi has no foreseeable
plans to activate the system, and the
future of Level 3 automation for Audi and
everyone else remains beset by a morass
of regulatory, technical, safety, behavioral,
legal and business-related complications.
Once, Level 3, sometimes called

"conditional automation," seemed like a
natural step in the evolution of automated
technology, a progression beyond today's
driver-assist systems in which drivers retain
responsibility for vehicle operations and a
precursor to self-driving vehicles. But that
building-block assumption baked into the
Levels of Driving Automation, outlined by
SAE International, belied unique challenges.
"Some OEMs say they're going to skip
Level 3 altogether and do Level 4, while
others are still pursuing this possibility,"
says Christophe Marnat, executive vice
president of the electronics and advanced
driver-assist systems division at ZF. "I'm
not sure how to interpret that. Does that
mean they have solutions? ... Or is it just



Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019

Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019
From the Editor
Taking responsibility
Q&A
No, we’re not there yet
Did you know?
One, two, four
Solving for x
Battle buddies
Looking out, looking up
Last mile
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Intro
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Cover2
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 3
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - From the Editor
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 5
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Taking responsibility
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 7
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Q&A
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 9
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - No, we’re not there yet
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 11
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 12
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 13
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 14
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 15
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Did you know?
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 17
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - One, two, four
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 19
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 20
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 21
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Solving for x
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 23
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Battle buddies
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 25
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 26
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 27
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Looking out, looking up
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - 29
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Last mile
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Cover3
Shift Magazine - July 22, 2019 - Cover4
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