On Driverless Cars – Part 2

Last week a post on driverless car technology created a bit of a stir when my friend and political mentor, David Hall, passed it along to his constituents. He received a number of comments and questions that he passed along to me. This provided me an opportunity to think deeper about the subject.

In addition, David added some additional statistics that I believe are germane to the subject. He adds. “There have been 627,433 traffic fatalities over the last 15 years which is about the same as the US War Deaths over the last 100 years (i.e. about 626,000), and there were 58,209 Americans killed in the Viet Nam War 1957-1973 (17 years), which is less than two years of recent US traffic fatalities.”

Traffic Deaths	2008	2007
USA	37,423	41,259
Texas	3,476	3,466
Collin County	40	40
Dallas County	246	224
Denton County	33	50

I believe driverless car technology would significantly decrease these numbers.

Here are the questions and my responses:

How would this be transitioned with only some cars having these features? – Yes, we would need to first change the law allowing the systems to take over control on the roads. There would be restrictions on lane usage at certain times, similar to HOV lanes at the beginning, then as the technology becomes more common these would go away. It is estimated that 99 percent of the US fleet of cars and trucks turn over every 18 years. Within seven years there would be more cars with the technology on the road than not.

Would everyone be required to have this Technology? – No, but ultimately, you might not be able to access certain roads or lanes. It will be like touchtone phones, eventually all the cars will have driverless technology built in.

What level of participation would be required to realize benefits? – Benefits for individual drivers would be immediate then the increased safety, traffic flow and cost reduction will phase in as the old fleet of cars and trucks are phased out or upgraded.

It seems this would allow for driverless cabs, public transportation, and delivery vehicles. – Yes, it would!

This will simply increase urban sprawl, the way to solve our transportation problems is to follow the European approach of compact cities with good public transportation. – Sorry, I completely disagree on this. Urban planning is a disaster from an economic perspective everywhere it has been tried. Europe is only successful if you do not count the government subsidies.

Just another invasion of our privacy making it easy for our government to track us. – With some parts of the technology, this is potentially true, but using the DARPA model as I described in the post, the technology is all local to your vehicle. (BTW – You may not know it is legal for the government without a warrant to go onto the publicly accessible parts of your property like your driveway to put a tracking device on your car then track your vehicle’s every movement. There are a few challenges to this underway, but right now it is completely legal.)

I like driving myself, I don't trust a computer to shuttle me around, and it will certainly not be easy to use. – You will not have to use it especially on local roads. Over time you might be restricted to certain lanes. Also, realize there are usually dozens of computers in control of your car now – anti-lock brakes, vehicle stabilization systems, pressure and temperature monitoring systems, and, of course, cruise control to name just a few.

Who is responsible when an accident does occur with another driverless auto or with a manually controlled auto? – This is a great question. There would be some liability and insurance laws that need to be examined. However, research indicates that this will be safer than driving yourself. You might disagree, but again that will be your choice. What is likely to happen is insurance companies will give lower rates to those who employ driverless technology.

Do the driverless cars communicate with each other? – They could, but more likely it would just be a system employing sensors to determine the physical presence of other objects, relative velocity, and projected location over time. This is how certain cars can parallel park themselves today.

Would I be able to select the route? – Yes, certainly. Even better the system would likely route you automatically based on preferences. For example, you could say “take the scenic route” if you are on a vacation or ask the system to take you the fastest way based on current traffic and weather conditions. Some high end GPS systems are already doing this, however they don’t drive the car.

What happens if I decide to take over the controls? – Most likely you would need to press a button similar to turning off cruise control. The system would then take you off line. If you are on a local road, it would probably be as simple as that. If you were going 100mph down a highway, there might be a delay while the system safely moves you to a driver controlled portion of the roadway.