Self-driving technologies can avoid traffic incidents

18 Oct 2017

The past year was one of the deadliest in American roads: car crashes caused 4.6 million seriously injured people and took nearly 40 thousand lives, according to the National Safety Council (NSC). The "Tri-Level Study of the Causes of Traffic Accidents" found that human errors or deficiencies were a definite or probable cause in nearly 93% of incidents they examined.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) stated above 40% of human fatalities happened because “recognition errors” that can include: inattention of the driver mostly by drinking or texting, internal and external distractions, insufficient attention or impairment. The "Human Error and Road Transport" identified those "recognition errors" as 95% contributory factors of the crashes examined.

As all of these car crashes cause high costs, not only for the economy (property damage, medical and administrative expenses, losses in wages and productivity, employer costs...) but also for public safety, environment, infrastructure, and transportation systems. Several policymakers and regulatory agencies alongside vehicle companies and scientists are currently discussing tough questions about both society’s future with vehicles that drive themselves and their interconnections.

Self-driving car innovation has the potential to drastically reduce human error or deficiencies (as autonomous vehicles simply do not face those recognition errors) and to hugely improve traffic systems, bringing a higher quality of life for everyone. Because of this, automation engineers suggest self-driving technologies can avoid traffic incidents.