[LINK] itN: Is Vehicle Autonomy being contemplated in Qld?

[Roger Clarke]

Queensland debuts "most advanced" driverless car in Oz
Matt Johnston
itNews
Aug 13 2019
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/queensland-debuts-most-advanced-driverless-car-in-oz-529501

...
The $1.5 million, purpose-built Renault ZOE2 completed the trip at level 
four on the automation scale, where the car can travel fully 
autonomously, but a human driver can still take control if needed.

Previous efforts from the Queensland Department of Transport and Main 
Road’s (TMR) Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Initiative (CAVI) trial 
have aimed for level three, or ‘conditional’ automation, where the car 
can drive itself some of the time. Level five is full automation, where 
carmakers won’t need to include a steering wheel.
...

[Does anyone know where this particular scale is published?
1.  ?
2.  ?
3.  ‘conditional’ automation, the car can drive itself some of the time
4.  Artefact Autonomy, human driver can take control 'if needed' (?)
5.  Artefact Autonomy, no steering-wheel


[I've published a related but different scale, most recently here:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AII.html#TAA

     Function of the Artefact       Function of the Controller
...
5.  Notify an Impending Action     Override/Veto an Impending Action
6.  Act and Inform                 Interrupt/Suspend/Cancel an Action
7.  Act                            NIL


[I find it remarkable that artefacts, with serious potential for action 
in the real world, operating in close proximity to even property let 
alone people, may already have been authorised to be outside human 
control.

[Can you shoot out the tyres?  put up a (multi-sided) roadblock that it 
can't get through or out of?  Pity the police patrols that have to find 
a way to run a rogue robot-car off the road.  Oh, but surely voyeurs, 
organised criminals, notoriety-seekers and terrorists wouldn't 
investigate the possibilities, would they?


[I have Level 7 in there for things like buggies on Mars, where signal 
latency precludes human control.

[My paper (above) continues:
 >There appears to be de facto public acceptance of the notion of 
delegation of low-level, real-time functions to artefacts [i.e. my 7, 
their 5 - where the rapidity with which analysis, decision and action 
need to be undertaken may preclude conscious human involvement (e.g. 
aircraft trim and stability, collision avoidance)]. Even at that level, 
however, AI is adding a further level of mystery.
 >
 >It remains to be seen whether the public will continue to accept 
inexplicable events resulting in aircraft and driverless-vehicle 
incidents. Following the crash of a second Boeing 737 Max in early 2019, 
the US President voiced a popular sentiment, to the effect that pilots 
should be professionals who can easily and quickly take control of their 
aircraft.
 >
 >That portends an edict that robot autonomy, at least for passenger 
aircraft, will be limited to revocable autonomy (5-6), with layer 7 
prohibited. In respect of less structured decisions [such as full 
control of a vehicle's journey], there seems little prospect of public 
acceptance even of revocable automated decision-making.


-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University