Our views on the safety of autonomous vehicles may need a reality check

“A machine making a mistake is less accepted – we expect them to be faultless”

UNTIL last month, the discussions regarding accidents between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians were largely theoretical.

On 18 March, an autonomous car operated by ride-hailing company Uber struck a woman crossing a dark road with her bicycle in Tempe, Arizona.

The car was in autonomous mode, and although a driver was present, she failed to react quickly enough to prevent the accident that resulted in the woman losing her life – the first pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous car.

Uber has since halted its trials of driverless vehicles, and is working with the police to understand how the accident took place.

We accept that as humans we make mistakes, even on the road, and that these mistakes can be fatal.

But interestingly, a machine making a mistake is less accepted – we expect them to be faultless. Yet this isn’t the case, and probably won’t be for a long time when it comes to autonomous vehicles.

Current estimates suggest up to 90 per cent of all road accidents are caused by human mistakes. Inattentiveness, poor reactions or simply not thinking things through have led to more than 1,000 deaths on the UK’S roads last year alone.

Autonomous cars will reduce that number and will improve road safety, there’s no question about that. But perhaps we will have to start accepting the fact that they aren’t perfect, and that machines, just like humans, can still make mistakes.