It turns out that you are much more likely to fall asleep in a driverless car with no one around than in a taxi with a human driver. It is often difficult to wake the passenger, so it ends with the arrival of the rescuers.

What’s wrong

In an ordinary taxi it is more difficult to fall asleep: you can talk to the taxi driver, and if you still fall asleep, the driver will tell you that it is time to leave the cabin. In the case of unmanned transport (especially over long distances), the passenger may become bored, sit more comfortably, relax and fall asleep. Upon arrival, the robotaxi sound system announces its arrival at its destination, however, as practice shows, a person may not hear such an announcement and continue to sleep.

• At the same time, developers are limited by the volume of the notification system – the sound in the cabin cannot exceed a comfortable level for one person.
• A vibration motor can be placed in the seat to wake the passenger, but the passenger may mistake it for a soothing massage and feel even more relaxed.

Situations where a client falls asleep on a robotax are not very frequent, but do happen periodically. Developers have to call rescuers to check that nothing bad happened to the passenger.and of course, they are extremely unhappy when they find someone in deep sleep after arriving at the specified address. They must wake him up by banging loudly on the glass and let him know that he is coming. As a result, rescuers’ attention is diverted from their duties, which can lead to them not having time to come to someone who really needs help.