Do you think that autonomous cars will decrease the accident rate?

[livetodrive]

Surprised to see so many votes for 'Yes'. The most electronic gadget which we are playing with everytime and everyday is our phone and we can see the number of issues with such a device, either software or hardware. Till it is stopping us to talk, spoiling our games or getting hot we do not bother. But will we be alive to press the reset once our car behaves abnormally?

There are several parameters which human brain control while driving through an 'exception'. Sometimes we are lucky to handle that fatal error depending on our state of mind and also road and car conditions. Will a computer software be able to handle that exception at all?

Just take the example of the court room scene from the movie "Sully". Such nicely it has been demonstrated that how simulation failed compared to human intelligence to take a quick decision which looked bizarre, but the pilot could take it because of his skill and confidence.

Why we are not scared when the plane is flying in auto? Because we know at 40,000 feet there is almost no chance of something going wrong. And in other times, i.e. take off and landing, we are aware that our pilot has taken control.

Can the same thing happen with cars? Will the software and hardware along with mechanical engineering deliver the same impulse response to a certain circumstance for two different makers of cars ? Or, even for the same maker, will the response vary across different segments of cars ?

For a Maruti I know I have to hit the brake hard, for a Hyundai it will be less. That "machine learning" happens to a driver in a few meters of driving. How about autonomous cars? Will we not doubt that whether the car is fed with enough data points to resolve a non-linear or multidimensional situation?

Atleast for now, till lot of test drives and results, my vote will remain 'NO'

[for_cars1]

At some point in the future, all vehicles will be driven autonomously. That is a certainty whether we like it or not.

Over time, the infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles will get standardised as well as the common protocol to be followed by all autonomous vehicles.

There is bound to be electronic communication between autonomous vehicles that are in proximity and the protocol (well defined set of rules and behavior to be adhered to) will bring in the consistent predictability in the actions of autonomous vehicles unlike human actions which is very individual specific (driver's skills, mood/emotions, attentiveness and alertness levels, drugs/alcohol influence, physical and mental stress levels).

Ofcourse, there will be accidents whenever the autonomous vehicles are faced with a totally new scenario which is not defined in the protocol. Such new events will be a feedback to strengthen the protocol making the entire system more and more resilient over time and making it almost foolproof to regular use cases.
There will always be security/hacking loopholes to deal with in technology. Its a matter of staying on top and keeping the autonomous protocol secure and foolproof and will be a continuous process.

In addition, with vehicles becoming autonomous and having the ability to go to a user, the very concept of a personal car will disappear and that itself will significantly reduce the number of vehicles on the road with reduced accident rates.

[speedmiester]

One way to force people to use autonomous features/cars is by way of offering discount on insurance premiums as this article indicates.
Directline offers 5% discount on insurance premiums if drivers use autopilot feature in their Tesla.

British insurer Direct Line offers Tesla Autopilot discount

Britain's largest motor insurer Direct Line is offering Tesla Inc drivers in Britain a 5-percent discount for switching on the car's Autopilot system, seeking to encourage use of a system it hopes will cut down on accidents.

[clevermax]

Surprised to see the higher percentage of "Yes" voters. I too voted "Yes".

The way present day Tesla is able to predict crashes brings in a lot of confidence on the R&D that is happening in the autonomous driving area. There's no reason not to believe that autonomous driving and AI will surpass human vision, response time and judgment to avoid accidents that happen due to human error.

On the lighter side, it will be funny to put Tesla's crash prediction to test on Indian roads. It will keep beeping all the time

[King_pin09]

I firmly believe that the major causes for road accidents are,

1. Arrogance,
2. Ego,
3. Unwillingness to co-operate with other road users,
4. Unwillingness to follow traffic rules,
5. Driving under influence (alcohol, tension, stress, day dreaming, hurry, et-al),

All the above factors are more of a form of psychological imbalance/ disorder and do not kick in when it comes to autonomous cars. Cars that are programmed to read road signage and follow specific measures are lesser prone to end up in an accident.
However there are other several factors that lead to accidents and are totally circumstantial in nature,

1. A tree branch falling on the vehicle,
2. A huge pothole, an unmarked speed breaker that has come up overnight, or a large boulder left over by trucker, at unwarranted locations such as expressway (esp during nights),
3. Land slides, cave-in, etc,
4. Tyre burst at speed,
5. Vehicle related issues,

The above are far from driver errors and cannot be factored by autonomous vehicles. At the same time an experienced and alert driver can foresee danger in advance and initiate measures to avert such hazard sufficiently in advance. Thus, it is not possible to avert accidents in entirety; however the extent which they occur can be reduced substantially by implementing autonomous vehicles.

The best way to reduce accidents to the maximum possible extent is to subject each individual seeking license through stringent tests (involving driving skill, eye sight, color blindness, reflexes, understanding signboards, psychological tests, et-al), maintaining qualifying criteria of the highest standards and issue permits only to those who satisfactorily pass through each of them based on their own abilities.

[aerohit]

Going by the trend of Indian government, one accident is enough to put a ban on all autonomous cars. They dont have concept of pragmatism.

(Student died, entire school closed. Baby died, entire hospital closed.

Actually, by above logic, entire govt should be banned for not fixing pot hole and causing death)

[YaeJay]

Voted No. Maybe in the future. Still think human brain is faster with all kinds of chaos that we see on the road these days. It would perhaps, work well in a controlled environment. And what would the automated cars do in case there is a situation where it has to take a chance to save 'itself'? What kind of rules would it follow?