New Study Shows That Self-Driving Car Safety Is Hard To Determine

Trying to ascertain overall safety with regards to autonomous vehicles is not easy, despite carmakers and tech companies touting their self-driving systems will greatly reduce the total number of road accidents.

While that may be true, a new study by Rand Corp. points to a safety framework being absolutely necessary as automakers get ready to deploy their self-driving products through our cities.

“No standard definition of safety exists in regard to AVs,” the study issued by Rand Corp and sponsored by Uber points out. “The public and the policy making community have an important interest in comparing AV safety with the safety of conventional vehicles, but there are limitations on the breadth and depth of comparable data collected for each type of vehicle.”

Among their findings are recommendations such as how regulators and the public should focus their concerns on the safety of the public and not on how development is progressing, or how a protocol for information-sharing between developers should be encouraged – such a protocol would have to incorporate measures, format, context, frequency, governance, data security and other factors.

Another strong point was made about how to measure the evolution of this technology once it’s been deployed for commercial use.

“Research is needed on how to measure and communicate AV system safety in an environment wherein the system evolves through frequent updates. AV safety measures must balance reflecting the current system’s safety level with recent (and perhaps non-recent) safety records.”

You can read more about the nonprofit organization’s study here.