Duh?

Humans Don't Handle Abrupt Braking In Autonomous Cars Very Well

The Freep explains what they found:

They discovered that when passengers unexpectedly had the brakes slammed, they pitched forward as much 8 inches despite wearing a seat belt in the front passenger seat. That’s a significant amount of movement while being restrained and has implications as an increasing number of vehicles employ emergency braking and other types of self-driving technology.

Automatic braking systems tend to brake harder than you or I would, the Freep says. So for passengers inside an autonomous car, especially if they’re not expecting it, that could cause them to dramatically pitch forward. The Freep goes on:

Reed said the research could be used to help design features that automatically adjust seat belts or send out a warning sound before the brakes are applied or before the vehicle maneuvers to avoid a crash.

It’s an interesting dynamic to consider as automakers are feverishly working to develop self-driving cars and bring them to the market. A number of carmakers have staked out ambitious timelines to have autonomous cars that don’t require human intervention on the road by next decade.

(Jalopnik.com)