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Comment by ph2082 | Hacker News Reader

ph2082·

Whoever come up with a this levels in autonomous driving (L1-L5) must be marketing genius. Ideally it should have been Yes or No answer to "does your car support autonomous driving ?", just like alive or dead. Right now, it is just another reason in list of Road accident deaths, till it perfected.

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Quite the opposite. It was defined by engineers, not marketing people, and it’s based on clear descriptions of the capabilities of the system, as well as who is in control.

The binary statement youre looking for comes between L2 and L3. A L2 system is a driver assist system, the driver is in command at all times. An L3 system can drive itself (driver napping or otherwise occupied) under specific well-defined conditions.

It seems a fairly reasonable set of levels. For example, L4 seems like something that may be achievable in the foreseeable future if it means something like full autonomy on designated interstates in some weather conditions. That actually sounds like something that would be very useful for a lot of people (and probably a big safety benefit). It just doesn't do anything about eliminating private car ownership or the need to be able to drive at all. But, personally, those are of less interest to me anyway.

This is law, so now you have to define “autonomous driving” in an unambiguous way.

Hence, levels. Besides, we're in a transitional period on this tech, so I think there's value in defining "how" automatic the experience is.

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