The road to self-driving cars - No rush to get there!
It’s perfectly normal to demand assurance that road safety will never be compromised by the advent of this new means of mobility.
Imagine it’s 2050, and the majority of cars on Quebec roads are self-driving. Collision rates are way down and nobody even mentions congestion. That’s a thrilling prospect to be sure, but it also makes our heads spin. So, as promising as the straight road to self-driving cars may seem, it must be taken in tandem with our own limitations.
To be clear, steady advances in automotive safety technology have long paved the way for self-driving cars. Some motorists will no doubt remember the sensation they felt when using cruise control for the first time. Today, there are blind-spot detectors, lane-change warnings, automatic emergency braking systems… At this rate, where will we be in just three years?
Does it still seem unsettling? That may be because science advances faster than we can keep up. But one thing is for sure: It’s perfectly normal to demand assurance that road safety will never be compromised by the advent of this new means of mobility.
Self-driving cars have a lot in their favour. For example, computers react faster than the best drivers in avoiding an obstacle. The tangible gains are obvious, whether in terms of road safety and its social costs, congestion, urban planning or sustainable mobility. On the other hand, autonomy is not synonymous with what we mean by intelligence. A single programming error can invite disaster. Recently, an Arizona pedestrian was struck and killed by an autonomously driven vehicle – causing a shock wave that is rekindling the safety debate.
Then there are ethical dilemmas. Faced with an inevitable crash, and in a fraction of a second, an in-car computer may have to “decide” who it will save first: the vehicle’s occupants, a child on the street, or several pedestrians on the sidewalk. The best option is probably one that will save the most lives. But what if you and your family were in the car and you had no control over the situation? It would be a devastating choice.
The demands of coexisting with other road users and the accepting of self-driving cars by the general public – especially in the early years of their appearance – are of paramount importance. In this regard, the CAA-Quebec Foundation is especially interested in Canada’s first fully autonomous electric shuttle project on a public road, planned for the Quebec town of Candiac. The 15-passenger self-driving shuttle will travel over a two-kilometre distance while coping with all the unexpected problems associated with urban traffic. One reassuring factor is that an operator will always be on board. That’s an experiment that the CAA-Quebec Foundation will follow closely. And it’s only the beginning: The City of Montreal also has projects in the works, with the support of the provincial government and other stakeholders.
Despite the challenges to coexist with self-driving cars, the potential is much too important not to be addressed immediately and open-mindedly. But let’s be clear: There’s no rush to get there. The stakes are too great and compromise on road-user safety is not an option.