much more risk they were willing to take. so, i do think tesla is singled out right now. their cars are -- i would say -- the most advanced autonomous technology available to the public but other manufacturers are coming but as i just said, look, no technology driving, until we get to level 4, which is where the car can drive itself and you can reach your book or check your email, no one should be hands-free until we get to that point. >> dr. cummings, thanks for being here. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. still to come your best tweets and the facebook version, have you voted? go to smerconish.com, was the situation until afghanistan today inevitable or the result of policymaking mistakes? can't wait to see that answer.
so there's no disputing that tesla, at least from a legal standpoint understands that the driver is supposed to be under control. but the problem is, that humans again because they get easily bored, and they see that the car is good enough. and we've seen this for more than 20 years. and it's researched that if automation or autonomy is pretty good, even if it's deeply flawed people will still basically see the automation as legitimate authority. and then start to engage in encomplicency, distraction. and indeed the car lulls people into a false sense of security. i dropped my phone, what could happen? i'm just going to reach down and pick up my phone. what bad thing can happen? and i think that's the problem. and in just half a second a lot of really bad things can happen in a car. >> is part of a problem the semantic issue, dr. cummings? would you advise tesla to lose the name autopilot? i think we're at level 2.
solely with the drivers. and with the company's ai day on thursday it spent much of the event still touting its self-driving systems. joining me missy cummings associate director at duke university. dr. cummings, i'm so glad to have you. i'm fascinated by the idea that you flew f-18s, landed on aircraft carriers. how much did you surrender to machines and computers in that process? >> well, it was actually seeing how much automation was coming and realizing that as a person i would not be that important anymore in flying an aircraft. that was the big motivator for me to move along to academia. >> how much of a factor is boredom in this conversation? >> i think it's a huge factor. i think that boredom plus our inability to have sustained