Pedestrian Fatality and Autonomous Cars

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A recent pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous car is simply the first such tragedy. Science News reported that a woman died crossing the street when a self-driving car, deployed by Uber, hit her.[1] Writers, engineers, and computer science experts had predicted this for some time. What will this mean specifically for the autonomous car industry and artificial intelligence in general? What algorithms, if any, need to be rewritten? What logic did the self-driving car’s onboard computers use in choosing to enter the area when a human being was also in the street?

I have previously discussed this possibility and its implications in other posts.[2] A number of questions now come to mind. Did the car make a decisive choice to hit the pedestrian to avoid harm to those in the car? Could the onboard AI have made a different choice? How could the outcome have been changed? Investigators will need to ask these and several more questions to get to a place of assigning responsibility for this accident. What will the law have to say? Who could be fined? What sort of lawsuit could be filed? We await the outcome to see how manufacturers of autonomous cars might learn from this incident and the ramifications for all car makers.

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[1] http://bit.ly/2FOICfm

[2] http://bit.ly/28VmLE1 and http://bit.ly/2AsuDZI

Autonomous Cars

Self-driving cars, without humans in the driver’s seat, are being tested on the streets of some cities. I used to joke with my nieces that once they were driving I would be turning in my driver’s license. Now, I am not sure whether I should be filled with awe at this amazing autonomous technology or fearing for my life. There are still many questions about how robots will make critical choices (see Robotic Laws). The tech companies readily admit that putting autonomous cars on the streets is a form of beta-testing and that there will be accidents involving cars without human drivers. However, the rationale for putting autonomous vehicles on the streets is that, ultimately, robot cars will lead to fewer accidents and fewer traffic fatalities on our roads. This is the argument in an article in Science News: “When it comes to self-driving cars, what’s safe enough?” by Maria Temming, November 21, 2017.

What kind of backlash against these autonomous cars can we expect when an autonomous car collides with a car piloted by a private citizen or professional driver? Temming gives us a possible scenario and asks, “What happens when a 4-year-old in the back of a car that’s operated by her mother gets killed by an autonomous car?” This is a real possibility. Will the public be quick to blame the robot or the human? How much will driving conditions factor into the investigation? How will Canadian winters affect autonomous cars? The title of the article is indeed the pertinent question, “What’s safe enough?”