Driverless crashes: Your risk may be higher than you think
SAN FRANCISCO – Residents of this city are used to seeing self-driving automobiles troll the streets with kooky sensors poking out from fenders and roofs.
But the San Francisco Bay Area is far from being a unique outpost for the development of robot cars, which proponents argue will bring cheaper and safer mobility.
Critics, pointing to Sunday’s Uber crash in Tempe, Ariz., that killed a pedestrian, say the tech remains unsafe and unfit for public roads. The fatality appeared to be the first involving a self-driving car of a person not inside the vehicle.
Could such a crash happen near you? In nearly onehalf of the U.S., the answer is yes.
From Maine to Hawaii, dozens of states have laws on the books that welcome self-driving cars, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
The 21 states (and Washington, D.C.) that have passed legislation approving such testing are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont.
And governors in these 11 states have issued executive orders or announced initiatives related to autonomous vehicles: Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Holdouts include a large swath of midwestern states, as well as Oregon in the far west, New Mexico in the southwest and New Jersey in the east.
Despite enduring concerns from consumers — polls show that most remain nervous about riding in a selfdriving car — many state officials are nevertheless eager to be seen as business friendly while also hoping to be part of a lucrative transportation paradigm shift.
Although only a few of these states actually host ongoing self-driving car programs, the thinking is that getting in early on a self-driving car ride-hailing platform could bring in tax revenues from businesses and employees looking for cutting-edge places to call home.
“There are clearly incentives to being as welcoming as possible, because when some states added hurdles (for example, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles requires self-driving permit holders to report accidents), companies just left for a more friendly state,” says Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Cox Automotive.
Uber moved to Arizona after California’s DMV said the company didn’t have proper permits to test.
But the death in Arizona, which caused Uber to halt all of its self-driving operations while the incident is investigated, is likely to at least give lawmakers pause as they weigh the benefits of embracing new technology with the concerns of citizens.
“Everyone’s going to stop and look at what’s going on with autonomous car testing now,” Brauer says.
Tempe police continue to investigate Sunday’s crash, and officials from the National Transportation Safety Board also plan an inquiry.
The Uber safety driver in the vehicle at the time of the crash, Rafaela Vasquez, 44, was not impaired during the incident, although she was hired by Uber despite having a criminal record. She did prison time connected to an armed robbery conviction.
Vasquez’s place at the wheel raises questions about Uber’s employee vetting practices; the company ran afoul of Colorado lawmakers last year and was fined $8.9 million for having drivers on its platform that had felony convictions.
The victim, Elaine Herzberg, 49, stepped into the street well away from a crosswalk as the Uber car approached in self-driving mode at around 40 mph. The woman, who was homeless, died from her injuries at a hospital.
Bruce Belzowski, managing director of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, says he “wouldn’t be surprised if some states get nervous, because you certainly don’t want citizens dying due to your decisions.”
One possible outcome: moves to test the cars in restricted areas.
Michigan has two private facilities dedicated solely to testing self-driving cars and suggests that such a fenced-in approach could gain popularity with state officials if constituents get skittish about mingling with robot cars.