It’s probably inevitable that we’ll one day have fully autonomous driverless cars but even still there may be times when we’d prefer to drive ourselves. Which means we still need to learn how to drive. And soon the driverless cars themselves may be able to teach us.
Motor Trend explains:
“A patent from General Motors published last week and surfaced by Motor1 outlines a new driver training approach using self-driving vehicle technology. The patent describes a method ‘for training a trainee using an autonomous vehicle,’ which wouldn’t require a human instructor. Instead, the car’s onboard processor will ultimately judge its trainee based on what the processor determines is the best course of action for driving the car.
According to the filing, the system would work by ‘measuring, via one or more sensors, one or more manual inputs from the trainee with respect to controlling the autonomous vehicle,’ and compare those manual inputs from the human driver with the ‘recommended actions’ from ‘an autonomous driving algorithm stored in the memory of the autonomous vehicle.’ The car’s processor would generate a comparison between the human’s decisions and what the computer recommended, and even have the car determine ‘a score for the trainee based on the comparison.’
The patent filing background proposes multiple benefits over an instructor-led training program. ‘In certain situations, typical techniques using a human instructor may not always be optimal, for example as this may introduce biases of the human instructor, and/or may be more time consuming, costly, and/or difficult to schedule.’ We may not be able to avoid user bias, since we have to remember the biases of the humans programming the self-driving software that may also be engineered into the system. It’s more likely the ‘cost’ of paying a human instructor is enough reason to ultimately lead us to instructor-less training, if anything.
If you’re wondering why we would still need driver training in a world with seemingly full self-driving capability, well GM’s patent has an answer for you: ‘A human may wish to drive for personal satisfaction, and/or may need to drive in certain situations… in which an operational autonomous vehicle may not be available or permitted.'”
Autonomous cars and humans are likely to drive very differently though. With humans more likely to speed and driverless cars displaying better reflexes. Would an autonomous driving instructor deduct points if you are slightly over the speed limit or if you don’t stop quick enough? Grading your driving and comparing it to a model is one thing. But can they really make judgements and determine if you are ready to drive the way a real driving instructor could? And is it really going to matter anyway?
Greatest. Idea. Ever. 
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