Autonomous Vehicle Crashes

Posted Wednesday, Jan 02, 2019

Although autonomous “mules” (self-driving automobile test platforms) are being tested in several US locales, the majority are testing in California. And, there have been almost 50 autonomous vehicle crashes to date. However, the crashes appear to be the fault of the other cars’ drivers. So maybe robot drivers are better than humans, but the interesting thing is that the robots are indirectly responsible for many of these wrecks. Why? Because they don’t drive like humans. Since they drive based on programmed algorithms, they are ultra-safe. Hence, they completely halt at stop signs, and they don’t slowly creep forward while waiting for that other car to clear the intersection. So, the human operator in the vehicle behind the robot expects the car in front to come to a rolling stop and bumps it in the rear. Or, the driver in the second car does creep forward, expecting the autonomous car to do the same, and strikes the robotic car in the rear. We Humans, as opposed to I Robot, expect certain behaviors that may not be codified in the local, state, and national driving statutes, but are, nonetheless, ingrained in our sub-consciences from years of driving around other humans. So, until all cars are autonomous, we will have a few more accidents than we would if there were no autonomous vehicles. At that time, we will supposedly have eliminated 94% of all traffic accidents. (As I sit here typing on my laptop, I find that optimistic; glitches, anyone?) But we also will have eliminated 94% of our freedom- driving is a vibrant piece of human history that has driven society in far more ways than Carl Benz could have imagined in 1886 when he invented the automobile. Maybe in another 100 years someone will be saying the same thing about robotic cars- I’m just glad I won’t be here to see it.

Photo courtesy of reasonablerides.com