A solution for semi-autonomous vehicles

Today, there are many discussions around self-driving cars and whether they can be trusted to take over from people. Although researchers are working hard to change this question into the reverse ("Why should humans drive when the computers do it so much better?"), there will (probably) always be a need for manual driving; for example, the car would have to be driven by hand to the repair shop when an important sensor breaks.

The problem, of course, is that if the car is doing most of the driving, then humans will be unprepared for the rare occurrence when it does not. The most fanciful depiction of this is probably the Disney movie WALL-E; the humans have retreated to self-driving floating armchairs, and barely even recall how to walk. As shown in that movie, though, the situation is unstable; if the systems stop working, which in WALL-E's case was as simple as a new robot bumping into one of the chairs, humans are adaptable enough to learn complex control systems on-the-fly and take back control.

But, of course, it is possible that humans could be injured or killed in this (re)learning process. For the most part, this has been worked around; e.g. car companies designed safety features such as seatbelts and airbags into their cars. But these are not sufficient; there are still many non-fatal injuries, and unlike with bumper cars, real cars cost a lot of money to fix when they crash into each other (exactly why this is so is up for debate).

So, I present the solution: video games; in particular, car racing games. Supposing that, in an autonomous car, the controls will be disconnected, this frees them up to be used for other purposes. By adding transparent LCD screens to all the windows and utilizing the already-present sound system and computer, a decent video game can be made even better through an immersive in-car experience. Furthermore, since it utilizes the existing car controls and view mechanisms, it ensures that the driver is well-acquainted with what to do in case of manual control.

Existing car games are already headed in this direction; dedicated vehicle gamers have a custom steering wheel, electronic pedals, and even a stick shift, for those who like manuals.

It seems simple enough; why drive your boring, slow routine route when instead you could be racing down the freeway, narrowly avoiding the flaming wrecks of other cars and dodging the oncoming fire of a police helicopter? Considering the level of skill required by these video games, transferring to manual control will be a piece of cake; for those who have things to do besides play racing games, a few minutes a day would likely be sufficient to maintain the necessary skill level.

As usual, I have no clue to why this hasn't happened; a similar system could easily be built for pilots, who already do very little manual flying. Instead, though, plane crashes continue to happen, primarily due to pilot error, while those pilots who actually do bother to play airplane simulator games, and then go on to use those skills to recover from unexpected events in their day-to-day flying, are lauded as heroes who went above and beyond their job description.

Now, I'm not saying these people don't deserve recognition; most video games include a leaderboard or a high score feature for that very reason. But, when they appear in the newspaper, rather than the video game forums, I think there's a bit of a problem. Video games can and do save lives; let's make them part of the job, rather than the main event.