10:07PM - 11.04.'16
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News Source: autoblog.com Consumer Watchdog
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As automakers and tech companies work on perfecting autonomous vehicles, governments are working to ensure the safety of the public. That's a large reason for creating self-driving cars in the first place, as it is hoped they can be programmed to make fewer mistakes than human drivers. Technology has the ability to respond more quickly to problems that arise, and robots don't get tired, distracted, or drunk. Google has been testing self-driving cars for some time now, and has been reporting its results as required. In order to continue advancing its research, Google pressed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to fast-track rules governing the testing of autonomous vehicles. Nonprofit consumer safety organization Consumer Watchdog has some major concerns about that, and has made requests of its own to NHTSA. First and foremost, Consumer Watchdog wants a driver behind the wheel, and asks NTHSA to require that autonomous cars be equipped with a steering wheel, brake, and accelerator in case a human needs to take over the controls. The organization notes that during 15 months and 424,331 miles of testing, Google reported that the autonomous system failed 272 times, and humans felt the need to intervene an additional 69 times. "What the disengagement reports show is that there are many everyday routine traffic situations with which the self-driving robot cars simply can't cope," says Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project Director, John M. Simpson. "It's imperative that a human be behind the wheel capable of taking control when necessary. Self-driving robot cars simply aren't ready to safely manage too many routine traffic situations without human intervention." The organization urges NHTSA to reject Google's fast-track proposal. Additionally, Consumer Watchdog puts forth 10 questions it wants NHTSA to ask Google, which you can read below. Hopefully, driverless cars will help to make the roads safer (and less congested, and more accessible) for everybody. If Google or other groups figure out how to improve safety through vehicle autonomy, it could very well be in their own interest to share that information, if only to help encourage the acceptance of its own technology (think Tesla open-sourcing its own patents). Asking for a "safety net" of human controls or other fail-safes doesn't seem unreasonable. Complete pushback, though, is likely to keep us all in the dark longer, during which time people will continue to die when humans make mistakes behind the wheel. |
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