Fatal Uber Crash Drives Continued Scrutiny by Media, Others
Sunday’s pedestrian fatality involving an Uber self-driving SUV in Tempe, Arizona (see 1803190024), spotlighted what could be “glaring limitations” in laws and regulations for driverless car technologies, Andrew Maynard, director-Arizona State University’s Risk Innovation Lab, emailed us Tuesday. The Lab works with local authorities on autonomous driving. Though it’s too early to tell how the incident will affect rules and liability, speculation has begun about whether Uber or the driver is liable, said the professor, “or even whether the pedestrian who was killed is to blame.”
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Such conversations treat self-driving cars the same as standard vehicles “when they are not,” Maynard said, describing a “chain of responsibility that stretches from engineers developing and testing algorithms, to designers integrating these algorithms with sensors and drive-control technologies, all the way to regulators.” As the technology progresses, there’s an “urgent need to get out of the rut of treating these vehicles as traditional cars, and to start becoming more sophisticated in how we think about risks, benefits, and liabilities,” Maynard said.
Stakeholders working on responsible development of self-driving technologies have been worried for some time that the first fatality could be a tipping point for public opinion, Maynard said. Citizens in Tempe, who have seen the vehicles on the road daily during Uber's tests, are “acutely aware of the potential dangers if the technology isn’t safe and reliable,” he said. “But living with these vehicles, it’s also easy to see how, if developed responsibly, they could make people’s lives easier and safer.”
It’s unclear how the public will view driverless cars as a result of Sunday’s fatality, said Maynard, a proponent of self-driving cars, but unless companies and regulators make a bigger effort to engage with communities potentially affected by the technology, it’s going to be difficult for companies like Uber to build trust, he said. Maynard would like to see arising from the tragedy a “wider and deeper public conversation about what we want a future with self-driving cars to look like, and how we’re collectively going to get there.” Maynard believes tighter regulations are needed -- “not to the extent that they stymie the technology but so that there’s clarity around what companies should be doing to ensure the safety of self-driving cars.” The company didn't comment.
As more details emerged about the accident, autonomous driving became a topic Tuesday of widespread commentary on social media and in traditional media -- largely with measured support. Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle said given driverless cars’ benefits -- providing mobility to the disabled and elderly, for instance -- it’s worth working for their improvements. New York Times columnist David Leonhardt said driverless-car companies should redouble safety efforts, and said Uber did the right thing suspending further tests.
That an Uber SUV in autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian “serves as a reality check” on the pace toward reaching full autonomy of self-driving cars, said Barclays in a research note. The news was a “sobering reminder that the path to Level 5 full autonomous driving, and even the more limited versions of Level 3 and Level 4, will take much longer than realized by the autonomous driving mega-bulls and enthusiasts, who are less familiar with the immensely complex technical requirements of full autonomous driving,” said Barclays Tuesday. Self-driving regulations “are likely to become more stringent” as a result of the accident, it said. Federal autonomous driving legislation that passed the House but stalled in the Senate “on concerns of safety protections will likely be stretched out,” it said. Though “a media frenzy against autonomous driving will more likely erupt, we believe it’s important to bear in mind that increased active safety and autonomous functionality will ultimately save lives,” it said.
CTA estimates self-driving cars “have the potential to reduce more than 90 percent of accidents caused by human error,” it says.