Humans had to intervene every 9 minutes in the AAA's test of driver assistance systems in LA
Published on Aug 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Aug 27, 2025 at 9:07 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
The AAA, American Automobile Association, tested different driver assistance systems in Los Angeles.
They tested the driver assistance systems in all different situations, including rush hour.
It’s fair to say the test didn’t go well.
The systems were far from flawless, and human drivers had to intervene with disturbingly high frequency.
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What they discovered about driver assistance ability
The American Automobile Association tested different driver assistance systems, commonly known as ADAS, in Los Angeles.
The goal was to test these systems in real-world situations that are famously difficult to navigate.
For example, they wanted to see if they worked at rush hour in Los Angeles.
Well, they don’t.
Apparently, the AAA said they had to intervene every nine minutes.
The other thing that’s kind of scary is that the AAA obviously wants to keep neutrality, which is why they didn’t name who made these ADAS.
What the different levels of autonomy mean
So far not so great, but we should point out that these systems were all Level 2 ADAS, which means they’re not necessarily designed to exclude human intervention.
Conventionally, automakers agree that there are six levels of autonomy, ranging from Level 0 to 5.
Level 0 means your car is as analog as it can be, while Level 5 means it can drive itself without human assistance, theoretically not even with remote override.
Most automakers operate at Level 1 or 2.
Even Tesla technically rates FSD as Level 2, partly for legal reasons as well as technical.
The only partial exception is Austin’s Robotaxi.
The newly-launched ride-hailing service still qualifies as Level 2 but operates at near-Level 3 or 4 with human override.
And then there’s Waymo, which is, at least for now, the only autonomous service operating at Level 4.
Waymo, Zoox, and others operate Level 4 services, but while Zoox and others are in limited testing, Waymo is the only one that’s fully operational in a growing number of cities across the US.
