Posts

hands-off-steering-wheel-driverless-car

U.K. Government: Driverless Cars Will Be Liable For Crashes, Not Drivers

/2 Comments/in , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

One week after the Queen of England’s speech, in which she said new legislation will propel Britain to the forefront of driverless technology, roads minister Andrew Jones gave his own speech, outlining how liability for accidents in driverless cars will work.

In a nutshell, Jones said, the driverless cars themselves will be held responsible for crashes, not the humans who ride in them, v3 news website reports.

Jones explained that the U.K. government believes that cars will be fully autonomous with four years, with no need for human drivers or passengers to need to intervene at all. Therefore, there would be nothing for them to be held liable for.

“The government believes that within four years it will be possible to buy cars that, under supervision, park on their own and pilot themselves on motorways. Eventually, there will be virtually nothing left for the motorist to do,” v3 quoted Jones.

Naturally, Jones says this will completely transform how insurance works.

“Compulsory motor insurance will be retained, but it will be extended to cover product liability so that when a motorist has handed control to their vehicle, they can be reassured that their insurance will be there if anything goes wrong,” he said. “Where the vehicle is at fault the insurer will be able to seek reimbursement from the manufacturer.”

The Queen’s Speech outlined a new Modern Transport Bill, which aims to remove legislative red tape delaying the debut of driverless vehicles in Britain. The Queen said measures in the Modern Transport Bill would “ensure the U.K. is at the forefront of technology for new forms of transport, including autonomous and electric vehicles.”

Many experts say keeping Britain at the forefront will also be a boon for the nation’s economy. Paul Wilcox, Nissan’s European chief, says it could be a 900-billion-pound global industry by 2025, with Britain nabbing a big piece of that pie.

“Autonomously-equipped vehicles will [also] improve the safety and well-being of drivers, with fewer collisions and reduced traffic congestion,” he told The Telegraph.

Volvo autonomous car - Australia

Volvo Announces ‘Drive Me London,’ the ‘Largest and Most Ambitious Autonomous Driving Trial Yet’

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

In an announcement on the automaker’s website, Volvo says it is prepping to launch “the largest and most ambitious autonomous driving trial yet.”

The trial, which they say will take place in the United Kingdom, is called “Drive Me London,” and aims to “speed up the introduction of a technology that promises to massively reduce car accidents, as well as free up congested roads and save drivers valuable time.”

The unprecedented trial will allow Londoners to lease autonomous cars for public testing on pre-mapped streets and routes, and will collect data on the cars’ performance.

Interestingly, the cars will be fully autonomous. Volvo says there will never be any need for the driver’s to take back control of the car, in any situation, and reps say the passengers will be able to “fully disengage”-meaning, they can surf the Web, watch TV or even sleep.

“Spend time reading a book or watching a video. The car will be able to drive itself and handle any situation that might arise on the roadway,” Volvo representatives told The Verge.

Similar trials will take place in Volvo’s home nation of Sweden and in China.

Volvo says it has been hard at work reducing fatal and injury accidents since the 1950s, reminding consumers that it revolutionized auto safety when it introduced the three-point seatbelt in 1959.

Volvo said its work on the development of autonomous drive technology is all part of the company’s commitment to “zero-fatality” cars by the year 2020.

While the idea may sound lofty, it’s not that far-fetched. Volvo has long tracked the number of injuries and deaths that happen in its cars. For example, with the previous generation of its model XC90, only one person died. In the car’s current generation, data from the Institute for Highway Safety indicate zero deaths between 2009 to 2012.

Volvo says, between its work on car safety enhancements and its progress toward fully autonomous cars, “No one will be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo by the year 2020.”

Volvo’s announcement says Drive Me London will begin in 2017.

This isn’t the first time Volvo’s name appeared in headlines this week. The automaker’s senior technical lead for crash avoidance, Trent Victor, caused quite a stir when he called competitor Tesla Motor Company’s Autopilot system “an unsupervised wannabe.”

Victor reportedly criticized Tesla’s Autopilot system because even when it is turned on, Tesla encourages the person in the driver’s seat to keep their hands on the wheel and stay alert, ready to take control back from the car when needed.

Victor says such a system is pointless and irresponsible, since any notion of autonomous mode makes people want to do other things such as nap or check emails. He said Volvo is close to perfecting Level 4 autonomy that is capable of responding to any type of situation with no involvement from the driver or passenger at all.

“We take responsibility,” Victor said in an interview with The Verge.

wyoming-I-80-crash-pileup

Wyoming, Home of America’s Deadliest Highway, Hopes Connected Vehicle Pilot Will Reduce Crashes

/0 Comments/in , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

One state’s Department of Transportation thinks connected vehicle technology could be the solution to solving the problem of one of the country’s deadliest highways.

Officials say Wyoming’s I-80 is one of the most dangerous highways in America. According to the Wyoming Business Report,  there were 50 injuries and one death on I-80 in April 2015 alone. In June, a family of three was killed on the same road.

Therefore, Wyoming’s DOT (WYDOT) announced this month it is turning to connected vehicle technology to try and improve safety on the highway.

The state is currently preparing for tests of a connected vehicle pilot program, in connection with USDOT. Test cars will be outfitted with technology that will allow the cars to communicate with each other, as well as with state infrastructure.

The Business Report says WYDOT is partnering with the University of Wyoming, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Transportation Technology, and Trihydro, an environmental engineering and consulting firm.

Part of the project will consist of installing short-wave communication devices in test vehicles that will allow them to send and receive safety messages.

The second phase of the program will involve installing technology in commercial trucks.

The information they can transmit will include the direction of travel, how fast it is traveling, and whether the vehicle is approaching a dangerous situation, explained WYDOT project manager Ali Ragan.

Though officials say the technology may not be able to eliminate all crashes on I-80 or other similar roads, it may at least help reduce the severity of crashes.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the technology will also be added to WYDOT’s mobile app, so that even if certain vehicles don’t have the special technology installed, they can view the safety messages through the app.

The first phase of the project is already underway and will continue through September, when the second phase will begin and is expected to last around 20 months. Then a third phase will begin, which will mostly involve analysis of the testing and evaluation of data collected.

Koalafreeway1

California DMV Will Now Include Reports of All Autonomous Vehicle Accidents On Its Website

/1 Comment/in , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

It has been said over and over again that autonomous vehicles will reduce the number of traffic accidents each year by as much as 80 to 90 percent, depending on who you ask.

Therefore, it is not surprising that when one of the foremost companies working on driverless car production, Google, has more than 10 accidents involving their driverless test cars in the past year, people are going to want to know what happened.

Earlier this year, when Google’s koala cars got into a few fender-benders - including the first to involve minor injuries to the passengers - the news media flew into an uproar. Reporters and news outlets demanded that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) should disclose details of the accidents, if for no other reason than the public has a right to know if Google’s test cars are going to share the road with human-driven cars in the Bay Area.

The DMV appears to have heard the call, loud and clear. The department recently created a dedicated page on its website linking to reports of accidents involving autonomous cars.

Nine reports are up on the site this week, spanning October 2014 to August 2015. Of those, eight are linked to a Google car and one is linked to Delphi Automotive. All personal information such as insurance companies and names of passengers are redacted, but details of the accidents and company names are visible.

The report of the Delphi accident, which occurred in October last year, involved one of its Audi test vehicles traveling in the Mountain View/Los Altos area of California’s Bay Area.

The report indicates the test car was waiting for traffic to clear so that it could merge onto a multi-lane road when a Honda attempted a dangerous turn and accidentally came up over the center median, crashing into the Audi test car.

The reports indicate the Audi’s right front bumper was damaged. The driver of the Honda was found to be at fault and given a citation “for making an unsafe turning movement.”

ACCIDENT WITH INJURY

In the only reported autonomous car accident thus far to involve any injuries, a Google Lexus AV was involved in a minor accident with a Tesla Model S on Aug. 20 when it slowed to yield to a pedestrian, the DMV’s report indicates.

The Google test car was traveling down Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View when it slowed. Meanwhile, the Tesla was changing lanes into the one the Google car was in, and the Tesla rear-ended the Google car at approximately 10 miles per hour, according to the report.

One of the Google employees in the car felt back pain and was taken to the hospital, where he was evaluated and released. The Google car sustained minor damage to its rear bumper. The Tesla car sustained more serious damage and was towed from the scene.

As these reports indicate, one problem that occurs when autonomous cars share the same roads with human-driven cars is that the autonomous car operates almost too safely. Human drivers - even at 10 miles per hour - can be more aggressive and do not anticipate the autonomous car to be so “by-the-book.” Further, it’s probably a safe bet that few human drivers know that current Google test cars have a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour, regardless of whether they’re traveling on a road with a higher speed limit.

Visit the California DMV’s page for autonomous vehicle accident reports.