Commentary: To err is human, and robotic — the problem with self-driving cars
The problem with so-called self-driving cars is that they are not really self-driving - not yet.
Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot, a semiautonomous driving system, and cars being tested by Uber have many features that allow them to operate without much help from a human driver, but still require someone behind the wheel to react if something goes wrong.
Unfortunately, humans get awfully bored trying to catch a mostly functional machine not working - it's like watching a clock all day, according to safety experts. Fatal crashes in the last month in Arizona and California put a spotlight on this problem.
The idea of having a human monitor a
