Autonomous car death is tragic, but tests must continue
UBER has been forced to remove its self-driving prototype cabs from the roads after what is believed to be the first fatality involving a fully autonomous car.
Elaine Herzberg, 49, was crossing a street outside the boundaries of a crossing – something many of us do – when she was hit and killed on Sunday.
The car’s computer appears to have lacked the ability to recognise a pedestrian where a person wasn’t technically supposed to be, and Uber’s driver in the car failed to override the computer.
The knee-jerk reaction is to halt the programme and put an end to the quest to have selfdriving cars. But in comparison to the millions of fatalities caused by human negligence, a single death from an autonomous vehicle, as sad as it is, should not discourage the innovation.
For Herzberg’s friends and family, there are no lessons, only tragedy. For the rest of us, the greater lessons are vital.
We need to figure out how to avoid future tragedies, given the increasing use of driverless cars.
Driverless vehicles are immune to weaknesses which plague human drivers, such as distraction, drink and drowsiness.
With a now renewed focus on safety, driverless cars are a big part of the solution.