First Pedestrian Fatality by an Autonomous Vehicle

There is no doubt in my mind that autonomous vehicles will one day be safer than today’s driver controlled cars and will reduce accidents and significantly reduce traffic deaths. Today, however, is not that day. Some loss of life in transportation as in medicine and other breakthrough technologies is inevitable to advance knowledge and progress. 

But in the case of autonomous vehicles we are not there yet. Despite the fact that we have made quite rapid advances with autonomous vehicles, we’ve still got a way to go before these vehicles are ready for prime time. With their array of sensors and cameras, these vehicles should be able to see more and react quicker than a human driver.

Given that, how are we to view the first pedestrian death caused by an autonomous vehicle? I am attaching three links from recent reports of this incident in the US, which raises some serious questions about Uber’s push to be the first ride-hailing service to crack this lucrative market. Uber’s reputation has been stained by a number of shady and unsavory practices in the past and what appears to have been an unavoidable accident may actually have been the result of cutting corners and impacting safety. The last link is particularly disturbing.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/technology/uber-self-driving-cars-arizona.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/technology/arizona-uber-cars.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share


http://tinyurl.com/yb8s6fro 



-Bill

As it turns out the first pedestrian fatality by an self-driving vehicle was the result of human error.

http://tinyurl.com/y95latds

-Bill