1. How Safe Are Self-Driving Cars?
Hunter Wikstrom
ITS 360
5/8/2019

2. Introduction
Self-driving cars are believed to help limit causalities on the road
Car manufacturers plan to have fully autonomous vehicles on the road by 2025
While the potential of self driving cars is high, there are risks involved
One must also consider the role of responsibility in an accident

3. Overview
Self-Driving cars are currently available in different levels of automation
One such car was involved in an accident with a bus in 2016
The google owned car was unable to identify that larger vehicles have different stopping and yielding tendencies

4. Overview continued
Another accident involving autonomous cars comes in 2016
There was a fatal crash involving a Tesla self driving car while the Tesla auto pilot was activated.
This brings up the ethical issue of who is at fault
It is unsure if the auto pilot system in the vehicle was working properly at the time of the accident
This brings to question, who’s fault was it?

5. Ethics problem
In the case of the Google car the question rises, Who was at fault
In the case of the Google self driving car the vehicle itself did not have enough data to be on the road
The car was not able to identify the tendencies of larger vehicles and react properly.
Google took ownership of the accident and is currently working to fix the software in the Google Self-Driving car

6. Ethical Issues cont.
In the case of Tesla Auto pilot accident there is another factor to consider.
The Tesla vehicle was in auto pilot but it had a passenger in the drivers seat
The raises the question, was it the vehicles fault or the drivers fault.
The answer is both, the vehicles sensor was not able to identify an obstruction against a “brightly lit sky”
The driver was not paying attention to the road and was unable to act on behalf of the vehicle

7. Issues cont.
In this situation it is expected of the driver to take over and avoid the collision.
The driver did not so he is at fault
The vehicle was not able to identify the obstruction as a trailer therefore is also at fault
When working with autonomous vehicles a level of accountability needs to be established at time of purchase.
Owners must be vigilant even when in auto pilot
Tesla and other manufacturers must improve the intelligence level of their vehicles before they are considered to be “safe”

8. Uber Self-driving car fatality
The lucrative incentive of creating the next big self-driving car is dangerous
Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed by a Volvo XC90 that was testing Uber’s self driving car technology.
The Uber driver was not paying attention to the road ahead of them and struck a pedestrian crossing the street with their bike
The Self-driving technology in the car at this point in time was not sufficient enough to keeps those around it safe
The “race” mentality of creating self-driving cars causes oversight

9. This is a case of rushed software causing an accident
Uber Accident
In the Uber accident the vehicle was not able to apply the brakes to the vehicle
The conditions outside were dark but had nothing to do with the accident
The car sensed the woman, but the automated braking system was disabled by the cars internal computer system
The car was also unable to warn the driver because the alert system was also not functioning
This is a case of rushed software causing an accident

10. Solutions
If we are going to have self driving cars on the roads some things need to happen
The human driven cars need to have competent drivers (good luck)
The software systems that are implemented in the self driving cars not to be substantially upgraded
Once cars are on the road they need to be able to adapt based on information gathered through machine learning
Manufacturers need to work together to develop a reliable AI for the vehicles

11. Outcomes of the cases
In the Google case it was found that the Google vehicle was at fault and Google is developing new AI to compensate for larger vehicles
In the Tesla autopilot case is still being investigated but is pointing heavily towards the autopilot being at fault
Tesla will continue to improve their autopilot machine learning.
In the Uber case the autonomous vehicle’s software is considered at fault and Uber has banned self-driving cars from their service
Are they Safe? Nope.

12. Video

13. references
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