No.  Despite the hype, they can’t.  On February 5, 2017, the Chicago Tribune ran a story about a $162,000, state-of-the-art autonomous car.  It can maintain a fixed distance from the car ahead.  It can stay in its own lane so long as it can see and understand the lane lines.  If it has a vehicle to follow, it can stop before crashing.  That’s it.

The article mentions driver aids (driver distractions?) like blind spot alert, but the car’s actual self-driving ability is shockingly limited.  Worse, whenever roadway circumstances cause this $162,000 car to doubt its meager capacity to cope, its instrument panel flashes while it tells the passenger to take over.

The hype tells us that autonomous cars will give us loads of free-time whenever we travel in them, eliminate crashes, make access to private transportation universal, and eradicate the newly unbearable task of driving.  Further, the hype insists that all this is just around the corner.  The only problem is that nobody can even guess just how far away that corner is or how long it will take to get there.

Meanwhile, we’ll be saddled with minimally autonomous cars that require human monitoring.  Yes, until that time, if ever, when cars can drive themselves better than today’s very best human drivers, passengers will always need to be ready to take control.

Google claims that it has no interest in these somewhat autonomous cars. Google promises its cars will not have pedals or steering wheels, but all other potential providers want human drivers to be available whenever they might be needed until all the bugs are worked out, in a few years – or decades.

Until then, autonomous cars will need to be monitored.  Monitoring, however, is not something human beings like very much to do.  They usually don’t do it very well either.  They’re not set up that way.  Take security guards.  Their greatest workplace challenge is to avoid boredom and not succumb to reading or playing games on their smartphones. People lose interest very quickly in doing dull things.  In fact, that’s the cause of electronically distracted driving.  People believe that most of the time they’re behind the wheel, nothing very interesting is going on, so they seek out other things to do.

Just about the only person who actually monitors driving closely is a very good driving teacher.  He drives right along with his student, aiming, scanning, analyzing, giving advice, sharing insights, directing attention, pointing out errors and potential errors, asking questions, praising good performance, keeping things safe, smooth, and flowing.

Suppose you did pay close attention to how your autonomous car drove.  Just imagine what some of your reactions might be:

“Why didn’t you pass that guy?”

“No!  Don’t let that jerk in!”

“Can’t you stop more smoothly?”

“You could have made that light.”

“Why didn’t you park over there in the shade?”

“You’re going the wrong way!  Don’t blame the GPS.”

“What moron gave you a license anyway?”

If you had to monitor everything your car did, you’d surely get annoyed, frustrated, scared, and angry in short order.  Blood boiling, you’d cuss the car and take over the driving – unless it wouldn’t let you.

Monitoring intermittently while reading, working, texting, having coffee and a doughnut, knitting, working out, making love, or whatever wouldn’t work either.  If the car needed your help, you’d never be able to switch your attention, figure out the situation, and avert disaster.  You’d have to stay ahead of the car all the time to prevent its mistakes.

Every time your autonomous car reacted to circumstances differently from what you expected, you’d get that little jolt of surprise and fear. Most likely, you would not find this more relaxing than driving yourself.  You’d do more work but never be in control.

When considering human monitoring of somewhat self-driving cars, skepticism should be your guide.