autonomous vehicles

saftey, Trust, &

regulations of

self driving cars

why is this important

Public safety

The Future

Autonomous Impacts

How strongly do safety concerns and government regulations impact the technological progress and public acceptance of self-driving vehicles?

"Safety concerns, infrastructure readiness, and regulatory frameworks emerged as pivotal factors shaping public acceptance and adoption of AVs and SAVs."Para 1. This shows that without strong safety measures and clear regulations, people are less likely to trust or adopt the technology, which can slow down its development and implementation.

saftey concerns & human factors

government regulation & public trust

cybersecurity & system reliabilty

background

$1 Million DARPA Challenge

shakey the first automated vehicle

Where we are now

2015

1987

1969

2026

2004

First self driving taxi ride

Ernst Dickmanns’ Self-Driving Van

Quote

"Safety concerns, infrastructure readiness, and regulatory frameworks emerged as pivotal factors shaping public acceptance and adoption of AVs and SAVs in Amman, emphasizing the vital role of governmental support and well-structured regulatory frameworks that are crucial for facilitating the integration of AVs and SAVs into the existing transportation infrastructure."

limitations

• Autonomous vehicles are so new its hard to find long term data
• Most research is based on specific areas, hard to find global information because regulations are different everywhere
• Public trust is very low only new generations accept

Waymo

Conclusion

Public security concerns and government regulations are crucial in the development and acceptance of self-driving cars. The technology is capable of making things safer and more efficient, but people still have trouble trusting it. For self-driving cars to become common, safety must be improved, cybersecurity must be strengthened, and rules must be clear.

Bibliography

Young, M. S., & Stanton, N. A. (2023). Driving automation: A human factors perspective.   CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003374084 Permalink: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003374084

• Expected to become more common as technology progresses
• Smart cities will start emerging (cars communicating with other cars and traffic lights)
• ride sharing will be much more common
• fully autonomous roads will take decades to become normal

Pros vs Cons

• reduces human error (cause of most car accidents)
• reduces traffic drastically

• reduces enviromental impact with more effeciant driving

• reduces number of jobs
• high development and implemention costs

“CAVs can be susceptible to sensor malfunctions, cyber-attacks, and unexpected environmental disruptions.” which is not true for regular cars. Because of this, advanced systems like machine learning models are being developed to detect anomalies in real time and improve reliability.

"As Parasuraman (1987) asked, given the impact of automation on attention and the consequent effects on the human ability to monitor failures, when it comes to technology, it is very often not a case of whether we can, but whether we should" - Young & Stanton, 1997, p. 335

• One of the biggest safety issues is how humnas interact with technology especially when they have to monitor or take control.
• Improving human interaction with technology is just as important as improving technology itself

Although government regulation is necessary to ensure safety standards and guide how the technology is used, there is no single national system. The US has a patchwork of regulations spanning accross all the states. Without clear policies and support, progress is slowed because companies have to follow seperate rules based on location and people are less likely to accept autonomous vehicles.

“Public skepticism regarding AV safety and reliability further complicates adoption efforts.” This shows that concerns about safety directly impact how people view and accept the technology.

• System failures can still occur
• Cyber-attacks and technical issues can affect safety
• Lack of trust in safety slows down public acceptance

In the 1960s, a group of AI pioneers at Stanford Research Institute built "Shakey the Robot." It was the first robot to have computers, cameras, and sensors, and it was programmed with early AI software to move around on its own. Because of this, it has been called the "great-grandfather of self-driving cars."

To try and speed up the idea of autonomous vehicles DARPA offered 1 million dollars as prize money, “The Pentagon basically said, we want to see who can build a fully self-driving vehicle, and we’re going to set up some tests and give out some prize money,” Fifteen teams took part in the first DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004, in which not one made it more than 8 miles on the 142 mile course. DARPA doubled the money for the second challenge which Stanley, a modified Volkswagen SUV built by a Stanford University research team led by computer scientist Sebastian Thrun and several industry partners, won the second DARPA challenge.

Currently we are in a hybrid era where human driven vehicles and still very dominate but with self driving taxis emerging in big cities and the increase of tests on anonomous delivery trucks we are definitly in a transition phase.

Waymo is at the forefront of autonmous vehicles having autonomous taxis in 11 major cities accross the US. Waymo's main goal is make roads safer they show this by saying "our mission is to innovate beyond the impossible in order to save lives that are tragically lost to traffic crashes". Waymo truly believes self driving cars are safer, do you?

Graph on Waymo website