A bumpy, but necessary, ride could be ahead
Autonomous cars may be the wave of the future but Uber has to shift into high gear if the ride-hailing company wants to convince the public they’re safe after one of its self-driving vehicles killed a woman crossing a street in Arizona.
But a Tufts University professor who studies the technology says ultimately selfdriving cars will be safer — by removing the human element that causes most road fatalities.
“They’re already working, what’s going on right now is trying to make sure they’re safe enough that the public will accept them,” said William Messner, a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts University. “They’re never going to be perfect. They have to be safe enough that people trust them — and that governments will trust them.”
Uber has stopped testing its self-driving cars after 49-yearold Elaine Herzberg was hit while walking her bicycle outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road in Tempe about 10 p.m. Sunday night. The car was travelling at 40 miles per hour and was in self-driving mode, with a human backup operator in the driver’s seat, according to Reuters. It was the first time a person was killed by a robot car. A Tesla driver was also killed when his semi-autonomous car on autopilot failed to detect a tractortrailer in 2016.
The latest deadly accident is tragic, Messner said, but the details of what exactly happened are not yet clear. Video cameras, he said, should be installed in self-driving cars to determine who or what is at fault when an accident happens. The vehicles could also be outfitted with more sensors to detect pedestrians, he said.
“We have to get the miles on these vehicles and in all the situations that a person would ordinarily expect to encounter,” Messner said. “It’s hard to know how safe they are because they just haven’t driven that much.”
Autonomous cars could be outfitted with indicator lights, so people know they’re not being driven by a human, Messner said, He suggested firms offer free rides to convince people they are safe.
The benefits of driverless cars could be big, he said.
Overwhelmingly, it’s the human behind the wheel that is the cause of accidents, whether they’re speeding or driving drunk or distracted by their phones, the professor said.
“That’s the kind of thing that goes away,” Messner said.
Back in the 2000s, when Carnegie Mellon University was developing self-driving vehicles, Messner rode in one.
“It was just great,” he recalled. “Once you get used to it, it’s routine.”