Driverless Car Sensor Failures, No Heads in the Sand, Please

Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider

Auto makers need to be developing AI driverless cars to handle sensor failures

I was in a hurry the other day and jumped into my car to try and rocket across town for an important appointment.

When I started the engine, suddenly my “idiot lights” dashboard lit up and indicated that I had a low tire pressure. I’ve seen this before and from time-to-time have had a tire that was a few pounds low after having driven up to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. In this case, I was taken aback because the dashboard indicated that all four tires were at low pressure.

My first thought was that this was impossible. How could all four tires be low at the same moment in time? Then, after a fleeting thought that maybe someone slashed all four tires, I got out of the car to take a look at them. They appeared to be intact. I luckily had a tire gauge in my car and used it to measure the amount of air in the tires. Seemed like they were properly inflated.

I opted to turn off the engine and start the car again. The four tires still showed as though they were at low pressure.

This was becoming irritating and frustrating, and of course was taking place just when I was in a hurry to get someplace. Murphy’s law strikes! I decided that since the tires are run-flat tires that allow you to drive when they go flat, I…