140: Unpacking The MIT Autopilot Study

A recent paper by Lex Fridman and other MIT researchers looking at the "functional vigilance" of Autopilot users has attracted considerable controversy in recent weeks. The authors claim a finding that bucks all the existing research about human interactions with automation, suggesting that Autopilot users do not suffer from the complacency and distraction that typically comeswhen humans monitor partial automation. In this episode Alex, Kirsten and Ed dig into the study and discuss what they see as being some of its issues.