On the road to autonomy, remember the operator

Automakers and their tech partners may be looking toward a future when they can offer fully autonomous cars, but Mica Endsley, the author of the recently released Human Factors paper, “From Here to Autonomy,” contends that without considering the cognitive constraints of the driver, safety can’t be assured. People will still be needed to oversee, direct, and intervene in the actions of autonomous systems for the foreseeable future. Automobiles are only one among many areas of implementation to which this applies; the same can be said for cybersecurity, unmanned aircraft, space exploration, cargo delivery, health monitoring, and more.