PH Blog: blind faith
Can you really trust the black boxes?
Having recovered the black boxes the full truth of what happened makes fascinating - and horrifying - reading. Especially if you ever worry about how much control we hand over to the machines.
It seems the pilots had so much belief in the idea that the Airbus A330 wouldn't let itself crash that they ignored ever more strident warnings and eventually stalled. They were so convinced by the manual's assurances that the Airbus simply wouldn't let itself stall they ignored the warnings, thinking there must be a fault with the instruments. That blind trust ultimately led to the deaths of 228 people.
And there's a danger cars are going the same way too. Take the E63 AMG test car we've just handed back for example. Though it seems utterly counter intuitive you can cruise in stop-start traffic with your feet off the pedals under radar automatic pilot that'll even bring you to a halt when the car in front stops. Brush the throttle and it'll move off again, maintaining an electronically metered distance whatever the speed. These systems have been round a while but we're breeding a generation of drivers who, eventually, might never have had to make these kind of decisions themselves. As Riggers has reported this week, a new patent marks the next step to cars that can drive themselves. But if, as in Flight 447, the computers go a bit screwy where does that leave them?
Blind trust in electronics can bite and it's actually had me off the road too, leaning against the mid-way 'show-off' ESP setting on a wet slip road. I was counting on a nice electronically enhanced - and recovered - slide. But the computers said no and off I went. Dumb, but previous experience said it'd have given me a quick half a turn of opposite lock and then tidied things up for me. When it didn't I was suddenly on my own and out of talent. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security that tricked me into thinking I could drive like that with impunity but, on my own, my skills weren't enough to recover the situation. A sobering moment indeed.
When they work these systems are incredible and mean a 500hp-plus rear-drive estate car with an aggressive limited-slip differential like the E63 is viable family transport even in the weather we've been having the last few days. A few years back that would have been considered ludicrous but now we take it for granted. And the E63 is a wonderful thing. But as Flight 447 proves it's sometimes worth trusting your instincts, as well as the black boxes.
Here in the Netherlands, apparently quite a few accidents were caused by people relying too much on what their sat-nav told them to do, ploughing right into ditches because they didn't look but blindly trusted their TomTom or Garmin...
Being able to use electronic aids such a sat-nav are a requirement for driving tests/lessons now.
However, when using sat-nav *you* are still in control of the car..
Things get really scary when the car (partially) drives itself.
I've valued ESP most when - for instance - driving gently, but tired, and coming across a patch of diesel on a bend. Having the car cut power and continue round unruffled was vastly preferable to having to summon a sudden correction from my weary reflexes. The same goes for ACC (radar cruise); I always covered the brake when using it, but it was the best thing ever in fog - set it to maximum range, drive at the right speed for the conditions and it would likely pick up the car in front before you saw it. I still always drove at a speed which meant I could stop within visual range, but could be much more relaxed about it.
On the other hand my race car now has no driver aids at all, by choice, since my biggest crash can be blamed on over-reliance on ABS (and on stupidity, and overconfidence, and overdriving etc - it was still my fault).
Also, that A330 article is actually quite scary.. All it took was the loss of the airspeed for the 2 highly trained pilots to seemingly forget how to fly? All I read is that one of them decides to then increase the altitude, stall it and ignore all the warning signs simply because apparently they're impossible to stall?!
I still would cover the brake with all that automation on cars. But how hard is it to drive it yourself. Even on long drives surely doing nothing will help you fall asleep more then just sitting there waiting for car to arrive at it's destination.
People see the power-sliding heroics of Top Gear etc and set about trying to pull the same stunt. But in order to overcome the electronics, you have to be ever more violent with the throttle and steering inputs. The problem comes when its not switchable or is still activated in some way and you set about trying to push the limits (as the author discovered), by the time you overcome the brain, youre in so deep that no amount of talent will save you. But you cant blame the computers for that.
Tail out action ought to be induced and controlled using power, not sheer momentum. You can shut the power off to stop the action but once you've got a pendulum swinging, you're a passenger. You'll get a better result on the big merc by grabbing your balls and turning everything off. The action will start sooner (with a lower terminal speed) and will be easier to keep a lid on.
I can see the author's point but I dont think he's made it very well here.
If that's not the case at all, then how are we really benefitting apart from having our driving experience and our skills levels, dulled?
Other pilot didn't notice until too late that the stick was hard back because his didn't synch with the other - perhaps someone more expert than me could explain why the two don't synch, as it seems counter intuitive?
ETA
I've had a wander across to Planes, Boats etc and now better understand the non-synching issue.
The move to full automation (whenever it comes) will cause a drastic reduction in accidents but the question still remains - will we as a society tolerate any at all while the car is in the hands of a computer?
can the copilot be blamed for inexperience an being immersed into that scenario without the proper training? Or am I missing something??
you cannot blame the autopilot or the flight control systems for this, at the end of the day, the pilot's should have been capable of dealing with the loss of 1,2 or all 3 pitot sensors.
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