Are the roads safer with self-driving cars?

23rd May 2018

Anna Flockett

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Datasheet

A new report has examined the impact of automated vehicles on road safety and cyber-security vulnerabilities. Automated vehicles promise more safety by eliminating crashes linked to human error. But claims that self-driving cars could avoid 90% of road deaths by eliminating these errors are untested, the new report by the International Transport Forum has found.

Shared responsibility between robot and human drivers can in fact lead to more complex driving decisions. The unintended consequences might make driving less safe, not more. In situations where humans take over control from robots, more crashes might occur among ‘average’ drivers who normally do not take risks.

Humans retain an advantage
Full automation may reduce the number of severe crashes significantly. Yet with partially automated systems, humans retain an advantage in many contexts. Overcoming this gap requires multiple sensors and connectivity with infrastructure.

Such fully automated and connected cars are vulnerable to cybersecurity risks, however. “The avoidance of crashes should never depend on access to shared external communication channels alone”, the report warns.

It recommends designing automated vehicles so that safety-critical systems are functionally independent and cannot fail in case of connectivity issues.

Safe System approach
Automation makes it more urgent to adopt a Safe System approach to road transport. A Safe System organises all elements of road traffic in a way that when one safety mechanism fails, another steps in to prevent a crash, or at least serious injury. Applying this approach to automated driving means the traffic system will account for machine errors.

The report cautions against using safety performance to market competing automated vehicles. “The relative safety level of vehicles … should not be a competition issue. The regulatory framework should ensure maximum achievable road safety, guaranteed by industry, as a precondition of allowing these vehicles … to operate”, the report said.

Other recommendations include:

Require automated vehicles to report safety-relevant data.
Develop and use a staged testing regime for automated vehicles.
Establish comprehensive cybersecurity principles for automated driving.
Provide clear and targeted messaging of vehicle capabilities.

The report ‘Safer Roads with Autonomous Vehicles’ was initiated and supported by the Corporate Partnership Board of the International Transport Forum.