Argo AI is first local firm to share self-driving safety report

By way of Ford, Strip District-based Argo AI is the first autonomous vehicles company in Pittsburgh to release a fully fledged safety report as suggested by the federal government nearly one year ago.

Ford released its internal safety assessment on Thursday, about 11 months after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation issued joint guidelines for the states and industry.

The federal guidelines call on firms in the self-driving space to submit a “Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment,” intended to demonstrate to the public that companies are communicating with the Department of Transportation and to build trust without revealing proprietary information.

So far, Uber, Aptiv and Aurora have not yet released a full report, although Uber did highlight some of its safety controls as it rolled cars back onto Pittsburgh roads in manual mode last month. A company spokesperson said a full report will be released in the coming months. Aptiv and Aurora did not comment for this story in time for publication.

NHTSA’s website lists General Motors and Waymo, Google’s self-driving car division, as the only other companies that have provided safety disclosures so far.

Most of Ford’s report includes predictable safety measures. For example, inside its cars — powered by Argo AI’s Virtual Driver System, which serves effectively as the brain of the vehicle — there are two safety operators who can take control of the car in case of emergency.

The company also diligently maps roads in a city before deploying autonomous operations, and cars are built with fail-safe systems, like emergency braking.

Ford’s report comes one day after the Governors Highway Safety Association, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, released a report urging states to pass laws regarding self-driving vehicle safety. To date, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation only has guidelines in place for firms testing autonomous car technologies in the state.

It’s critical to implement educational programs that teach both drivers and pedestrians how to interact with self-driving cars, said James Hedlund, an Ithaca, N.Y.-based private consultant who prepared the Governors Highway Safety Association report.

And Ford addresses that. The company is working jointly with the International Standards Organization and SAE International — a professional association that creates standards for engineering trades — to come up with what it calls an “unspoken language” for selfdriving vehicles.