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‘Former pilot’ seems like a fairly irrelevant part of the resume of a human-autonomous vehicle interaction researcher with a PhD in systems engineering and a se

‘Former pilot’ seems like a fairly irrelevant part of the resume of a human-autonomous vehicle interaction researcher with a PhD in systems engineering and a series of professorships either side of an NHTSA advisory position.

vba616 3y ago
>‘Former pilot’ seems like a fairly irrelevant part of the resume Does it? "Tesla's Autopilot AI team drives the future of autonomy of current and new generations of vehicles"
sigmoid10 3y ago
For most people "former navy pilot" is more likely to establish credibility by association. Not that this kind of journalism is worthy of praise, but it is pretty prevalent.
- natch 3y ago
  She is pushing a competing technology. They forgot to mention that.
lightedman 3y ago
It's actually fairly-relevant, as airplanes from commercial craft to military craft have a TON of autonomous systems.
natch 3y ago
Her being a major stockholder and board member of a LIDAR company is also important context, but was left out for some reason. She is pushing a technology approach Elon has called “a fool’s errand” which explains a lot of her incongruous hostility toward Tesla.
- vba616 3y ago
  How it is important context? The article isn't about LIDAR. And if LIDAR is the wrong way to go for technical reasons, then if she pushes for better autonomous driving technology, she is working against her supposed interests.
  - natch 3y ago
    When they leave things out it’s up to you to connect the dots, or not. Her association with a LIDAR company suggests she is not a neutral voice here when it comes to evaluating solutions.
    - vba616 3y ago
      The topic you are debating, I can't relate to the article. Can you clarify?
- thrill 3y ago
  Everything that slows down the selling of Teslas is labeled by Elon as a "fool's errand".
  - natch 3y ago
    Flippant. By that logic he wouldn’t work at Twitter or SpaceX. The point is she has an agenda to make money off her stake in a competitor, so her opinions should be seen in that light.
    - gregw2 3y ago
      “Has an agenda to make money”implies an evidence based assumption of knowledge of likely motives, and that she did not divest her stake before taking a governance role. She did divest preemptively, as described elsewhere in this thread.
      - natch 3y ago
        Her position will be kept open for her so she still has an interest. And we don’t really know what deal she may have with the company. She certainly has a close relationship with them. My understanding is that she had stock options, which can be granted again.
- Veserv 3y ago
  What company, Veoneer? The company where she resigned from the board and sold all of her shares prior to accepting her appointment as a senior safety advisor to NHTSA? We should believe Elon Musk who has the largest current conflict of interest in the world over a woman who has no current conflict of interest and deliberately took action to terminate any potential conflict of interest she may have had (to be fair that is legally required to hold such a post)?
ghaff 3y ago
On the one hand, she's been writing about this sort of thing for years--including at a time when when a lot of people here and elsewhere had bought into the fully autonomous vehicles next year Koolaid. And there are probably a lot fewer people running human factors labs that relate to this topic than there are former fighter pilots. That said, being a researcher who also has first-hand experience as one of the US Navy's first female fighter pilots does bring additional real world credibility--and, yes, probably makes people more likely to click on the headline.
natch 3y ago
They are trying to make digs against auto pilot so it fits into that narrative.
piloto_ciego 3y ago
Other former pilot here… I’d say that HCI and understanding how automation works in the user environment is probably more useful than her PhD in systems engineering given the context. Switching/using correct/monitoring autopilot modes is (somehow) still a major problem in aviation. It’s not surprising that drivers (who basically get no training) have a hard time with this too, nor is it surprising that manufacturers are blinded by their own BS (see 737 Max for further reference). Comically the GA airplanes with Garmin units in them were wildly better designed than the “professional FMS” boxes Honeywell sold. In particular, the flag ship “Honeywell Apex” units were terrible in comparison to the touch screen Garmins. That’s wild, because the Honeywell box is fully integrated with the airplane and an order of magnitude more expensive.

vba616 3y ago

>‘Former pilot’ seems like a fairly irrelevant part of the resume Does it? "Tesla's Autopilot AI team drives the future of autonomy of current and new generations of vehicles"

sigmoid10 3y ago

For most people "former navy pilot" is more likely to establish credibility by association. Not that this kind of journalism is worthy of praise, but it is pretty prevalent.

natch 3y ago
She is pushing a competing technology. They forgot to mention that.

lightedman 3y ago

It's actually fairly-relevant, as airplanes from commercial craft to military craft have a TON of autonomous systems.

natch 3y ago

Her being a major stockholder and board member of a LIDAR company is also important context, but was left out for some reason. She is pushing a technology approach Elon has called “a fool’s errand” which explains a lot of her incongruous hostility toward Tesla.

vba616 3y ago
How it is important context? The article isn't about LIDAR. And if LIDAR is the wrong way to go for technical reasons, then if she pushes for better autonomous driving technology, she is working against her supposed interests.
- natch 3y ago
  When they leave things out it’s up to you to connect the dots, or not. Her association with a LIDAR company suggests she is not a neutral voice here when it comes to evaluating solutions.
  - vba616 3y ago
    The topic you are debating, I can't relate to the article. Can you clarify?
thrill 3y ago
Everything that slows down the selling of Teslas is labeled by Elon as a "fool's errand".
- natch 3y ago
  Flippant. By that logic he wouldn’t work at Twitter or SpaceX. The point is she has an agenda to make money off her stake in a competitor, so her opinions should be seen in that light.
  - gregw2 3y ago
    “Has an agenda to make money”implies an evidence based assumption of knowledge of likely motives, and that she did not divest her stake before taking a governance role. She did divest preemptively, as described elsewhere in this thread.
    - natch 3y ago
      Her position will be kept open for her so she still has an interest. And we don’t really know what deal she may have with the company. She certainly has a close relationship with them. My understanding is that she had stock options, which can be granted again.
Veserv 3y ago
What company, Veoneer? The company where she resigned from the board and sold all of her shares prior to accepting her appointment as a senior safety advisor to NHTSA? We should believe Elon Musk who has the largest current conflict of interest in the world over a woman who has no current conflict of interest and deliberately took action to terminate any potential conflict of interest she may have had (to be fair that is legally required to hold such a post)?

ghaff 3y ago

On the one hand, she's been writing about this sort of thing for years--including at a time when when a lot of people here and elsewhere had bought into the fully autonomous vehicles next year Koolaid. And there are probably a lot fewer people running human factors labs that relate to this topic than there are former fighter pilots. That said, being a researcher who also has first-hand experience as one of the US Navy's first female fighter pilots does bring additional real world credibility--and, yes, probably makes people more likely to click on the headline.

natch 3y ago

They are trying to make digs against auto pilot so it fits into that narrative.

piloto_ciego 3y ago

Other former pilot here… I’d say that HCI and understanding how automation works in the user environment is probably more useful than her PhD in systems engineering given the context. Switching/using correct/monitoring autopilot modes is (somehow) still a major problem in aviation. It’s not surprising that drivers (who basically get no training) have a hard time with this too, nor is it surprising that manufacturers are blinded by their own BS (see 737 Max for further reference). Comically the GA airplanes with Garmin units in them were wildly better designed than the “professional FMS” boxes Honeywell sold. In particular, the flag ship “Honeywell Apex” units were terrible in comparison to the touch screen Garmins. That’s wild, because the Honeywell box is fully integrated with the airplane and an order of magnitude more expensive.