Introduction
Autonomous vehicles are on their way. But will they make our roads safer? The short answer is yes, but there are still some challenges that need to be addressed. There’s no doubt that autonomous vehicles will help us reduce the number of accidents and injuries caused by human error. It’s estimated that 90{a5ecc776959f091c949c169bc862f9277bcf9d85da7cccd96cab34960af80885} of collisions involve some kind of human error or misjudgment—but what percentage can be attributed to drivers who are distracted or drunk? And when it comes to pedestrian safety, even a small decrease in accidents could mean fewer people hit by cars every year!
Road safety is already a concern
Road safety is a concern for everyone. In fact, it’s one of the most common causes of death in the United States and around the world.
Road accidents happen all too frequently, but autonomous vehicles will help reduce them significantly by eliminating human error.
Will autonomous vehicles save lives?
As you may know, autonomous vehicles are expected to reduce the number of accidents, deaths and injuries on our roads. The National Safety Council estimates that 90 percent of all traffic accidents are caused by human error (i.e., driving while intoxicated or distracted). But as we’ve discussed before–and as we’ll explore further below–there’s something unsettling about these claims: they’re often made without any hard evidence.
In fact, many experts argue that autonomous cars won’t actually save lives at all; instead they might make things worse by lulling drivers into complacency and making them less likely to pay attention when behind the wheel.
The sad truth of road safety
The sad truth of road safety is that it’s not always about the car. The most dangerous thing to be on the road is a human being. In fact, in the UK and US respectively:
- Road accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 15-29; and
- Car accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-34.
Fewer collisions are good, right?
In theory, fewer collisions are good. But not all accidents are the same and autonomous vehicles could lead to more severe injuries and deaths than human-driven cars.
In 2016 there were more than 6 million car crashes in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The majority of these incidents were rear-endings caused by distracted driving or speeding; they resulted only in property damage and minor injuries like bruises or whiplash.
The most common cause of death on American roads? Drunk driving–not speeding or distracted driving–accounted for 10,497 fatalities that year alone; speeding was responsible for another 3250 deaths during that period.[1] This means that if we’re going by numbers alone, autonomous vehicles could actually make our roads less safe by removing one factor: human error.[2]
Who’s responsible when a driverless car crashes?
When an autonomous vehicle crashes, who’s responsible?
The manufacturer? The software company? The driver? The passenger? The government? Insurance companies? And what about other parties that might be involved in the crash–like pedestrians or other drivers who were distracted by their phones when they hit your car and caused you to swerve into oncoming traffic, where your autonomous vehicle collided with another driverless car whose system was unable to detect the obstacle in time because it didn’t have enough data on what objects look like when they’re flying towards them at high speed. Who pays for all of that damage then?!
The safety of road users is an important issue for autonomous vehicles.
The safety of road users is an important issue for autonomous vehicles.
This is because road users are the people who use the roads, and they need to be safe while they’re on them. If they aren’t safe, then they can get injured or killed in accidents. This would cause a lot of trouble for everyone else who uses those roads as well–like other drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians–so it’s best if we try our best not to let them get hurt!
Safety also matters because it affects the future of transportation: if autonomous cars don’t make us safer than human-driven ones do today (and even if they do), then there won’t be any point in switching from one type of vehicle into another type after all this time spent developing these technologies together with each other over several decades worth of research projects funded by governments around world…
In addition
Conclusion
The safety of autonomous vehicles is a complex issue, with many factors at play. We have to consider not just the technology involved but also human behaviour on the road and how we can improve that. There is no one solution for making roads safer, but by improving our understanding of these issues now we can make sure that future generations will benefit from better roads and fewer accidents overall