How Self-Driving Vehicles Improve Safety

Grace Johnson

Ms. Sally Spear

8 January, 2018
 Robots are no longer a thing of science fiction. Instead of it being outlandish to dream of

receiving aid from machines, now goods are manufactured by automatons on assembly lines, and

A.I. programs answer trivia and conduct searches from within smart phones. With these

mechanical and technological advances already entering so many different areas of life, robots

assisting in a task as common as driving is a logical step forward.

According to research by Google, 94% of all vehicular accidents are caused by human

error. This could refer to many circumstances, whether drivers are distracted by smartphones or

disobey laws through ways such as accidental, or intentional, speeding. Because humans are

prone to making these careless choices, they potentially endanger the lives of themselves, their

passengers, other drivers, and even pedestrians. Of all the ways that this hazardous behavior has

been combated in recent years, one of the most popular avenues still being explored, and

possibly the most lucrative, is the development of self-driving vehicles.

The development of A.I. systems has been a popular topic for research in recent years,

and the idea of putting these systems into autonomous modes of transportation is similarly big

with many companies. Mercedez-Benz, a car manufacturer, and Waymo, an offshoot from

Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., are some of the most prominent. Examining the ways in

which the two companies choose to handle the matter of safety, enhancing it with the use of A.I.

technology and automotive engineering, is useful in allowing the public to gain confidence in

passing control of the wheel to another, as well as informing technicians of areas they can
improve on in the future. Self-driving vehicles have the potential to greatly increase both

passenger and pedestrian safety in the years to come.

It is important to understand how vehicular accidents naturally occur to prevent them. In

figuring out what can, and does, commonly go wrong on the road, vehicle engineers and

designers learn what exactly to augment and pay special attention to; noting the different kinds

of hazards is essential.

As recorded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, the NHTSA, the most

common causes for car accidents are driver related errors (NHTSA). Distracted driving in

particular is one of the most prevalent ways a person can increase the chance of injury. The

window of action as a car swerves into the wrong lane or some inattentive pedestrian walks into

traffic is small for a driver, and yet the quick decisions made in that window can mean the

difference between life and death, or at the very least costly injury. One is unfortunately unable

to react quickly when his or her focus is split between the road and elsewhere.

Texting while driving is a common form of casual safety negligence, one of the "most

alarming [distractions]" (Currin). Cell phones have become increasingly popular in the last

decade, especially with the newest generation of drivers, and so too has the habit of reading and

sending messages while behind the wheel. Having one’s head down for even a few seconds

while traveling at high speeds, left unaware of light changes or sudden stops from the vehicles up

ahead, is a disaster waiting to happen. The idea that a person can multitask in such scenarios is

both a wide spread one and a dangerous one for drivers.

Aside from phone usage, drunk driving and driving while drowsy are also forms of error.

Drunk driving has long been an often-discussed cause for vehicular accidents. Intoxication,
though acceptable while in a bar surrounded by friends or in similar settings, dulls the senses and

impairs a person’s awareness while in a vehicle, making reactions to accidents slower which

endangers any possible passengers. Fine judgement may also be at negatively impacted; common

laws like obeying the speed limit or wearing a seatbelt might be forgone by a hazy mind and

make injury in a possible collision worse. Although many don’t realize, drowsiness can cause

many of the same effects that drunkenness does. A tired driver would have a mind that’s just as

clouded depending on the level of sleep deprivation, in addition to having the added risk of

drifting off while en route to a destination. Thus, he or she would also be unfit to sit behind the

wheel of a vehicle.

There are, of course, other ways that accidents can occur without the driver directly being

at fault. Problems with the vehicle itself are a more indirect issue in that maintenance should be

sought after prior to pulling out of one’s drive-way. In some cases, road conditions are less than

favorable. Debris from previous wrecks or wayward trash becomes a hazard. In addition, weather

creates danger in the form of wind and precipitation, which can be especially dangerous in hilly

areas and roads with multiple turns; warmer climates face literal roadblocks in the cases of sleet

or snow as drivers have less experience in those conditions. Driver error, however, remains the

most controllable and most prevalent aspect of vehicular crashes, and thus is the aspect multiple

companies are trying to do away with in their self-driving vehicle designs.

Google's self-driving car company Waymo has safety as one of its main goals. The

company states that they are building a car that "is always alert and never distracted" () on its

website, both directly acknowledging driver error and stating that it will be subverted with the

vehicle. To this end, the company has turned to artificial intelligence capable of learning road

patterns and four different types of sensors. Its system ranks as a five, or “Full Automation”, on
the scale of autonomous vehicles created by the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE

International) and adopted by the NHTSA for the sake of manufacturing clarification. A five on

this scale, which measures the amount of human involvement needed to drive the vehicle, means

that absolutely no extra input is necessary to move forward.

In the interest of transparency, Waymo recently put out a many paged “Safety Report”

detailing its methods to the public. It details, among other things, the four types of sensors that

the cars use to perceive the environments around them. The Light Detection and Ranging system,

or LiDar System, uses lasers to determine the distance from surrounding objects to the vehicle by

measuring the time it takes for lasers to hit something and return; the Vision System uses 360-

degree cameras to get a view similar to that which human driver would see, capable of detecting

color and thus recognizing signs, flashing lights, and certain vehicles; the Radar system detects

objects and their movements, even through precipitation and visibility-reducing weather such as

fog; and the other supplementary systems include applications such as GPS and audio receivers

which can pick up emergency sirens. Together the sensors “paint a detailed 3D picture of the

world” (Waymo) to be used by the “brain” of the vehicle in traffic analysis, prediction, and

decision making on the road. These methods make the Waymo self-driving car significantly

more aware of its surroundings than a human driver, beyond even the potential to be distracted

by texting or tiredness. The car’s advanced capability is aided by its A.I.’s collective prior

experience; it’s gained through practice driving on the road, on simulated roads, and on test

tracks that put the vehicles through multiple hazardous scenarios and shared collectively amongst

the artificial intelligences. The fully autonomous system that Waymo employs not only removes

the chance for a person’s distraction to negatively affect othe6rs, it provides passengers with a
more well-suited driver in their stead, and this method is only one way to get driving safety out

of human hands.

Mercedes-Benz has its own automotive systems that it plans to save lives with. In

contrast to Waymo, the car they’re featured in, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class First Drive, still

requires a level of human involvement to run smoothly (Golson). As stated previously, Waymo's

systems operate at a level five on the NHTSA’s self-driving scale; Mercedes-Benz’s autonomous

augmentations are closer to a level three, “Conditional Automation.” Vehicles at this level can

control certain operations in certain instances, “but the human driver must be ready to take back

control when the automated system requests,” (NHTSA). As reported by Autoblog, E-Class can

drive continuously in a single lane at up to 130 mph, correcting its steering to keep in said lane

using sensors that detect markers on the road, due to its Drive Pilot system. Failing said

indicators, Drive Pilot can still have a vehicle follow traffic at up to 80 mph. Other “Driver

Assistance” systems within the car can prevent against possible accidents by alerting the driver

of pedestrians in the car’s blind-spot and breaking automatically to avoid collisions. Despite the

inability to handle driving by themselves, the autonomous systems can still handle a large

majority of the driving. To cover for the parts that they can’t accomplish, a beeping occurs at

thirty-second intervals to keep the driver focused on the road and prevent he or she from getting

too comfortable with the A.I. having control (Golson). Mercedes-Benz has developed many

systems that are capable of, if not removing the threat of driver error entirely, augmenting the

threat to a point where humans are responsible for fewer aspects of driving, and thus fewer

casualties may occur.

Though many companies that have invested years into developing autonomous

technologies, most of them are yet to create a finished product that will be road worthy for many
years; there are ways that the safety of self-driving vehicles can thus improve before they are

widely sold commercially. The way self-driving cars will handle unavoidable crashes is one area

of contention, specifically concerning ethics. The Trolley Problem is a moral dilemma that many

are looking at seriously. It proposes a situation in which a person is in control for the rail switch

for a trolley, and both the current track and alternative have people standing on them, the first

with a group while the second has only one. The problem then begs the question that, in a

situation where lives will end despite the choice made, should one make the decision to save the

many at the cost of the few? While it may seem irrelevant, this dilemma will inevitably matter

when it comes a time for a self-driving car’s A.I. to choose between protecting the passenger or

the civilian. How the engineers and developers choose to answer the question matters immensely

in these scenarios.

Mercedes-Benz does, in fact, have a level five Fully Autonomous car at the concept level

of development, the F 015 Luxury in Motion, planned to be released in later decades. Although

Mercedes does not yet have the system to run it, the German company still has plans for the way

it should handle potential crashes. In an interview for Car and Driver magazine at the Paris

Motor Show in 2016, Driver Assistance Systems manager Christian von Hugo claimed that the F

015, as well as all future level 4 and 5 cars, would always protect the passenger because, "If all

you know for sure is that one death can be prevented, then that’s your first priority” (Dodgson).

This spiked a big controversy in the public, and the statement has since been rescinded, with a

spokesperson claiming that “neither programmers nor automated systems are entitled to weigh

the value of human lives” (Orlove). While this may feel more morally correct, one of the policies

concerning self-driving vehicles outlined by the Department of Transportation (DOT), a parent

organization of the NHTSA, says that the ability to make moral decisions in cases of such a crash
and others is necessary for the vehicle to be approved (NHTSA). A positive to this issue is that,

as claimed by many, introducing more self-driving vehicles to the road would make it more

likely that accidents simply wouldn’t occur in the first place. This is no substitute for an answer

to the Trolley Problem, as the reckless actions of pedestrians can be uncontrollable and

inevitable in many cases. However, mitigating the reckless actions of those behind the wheel

now is the first step to reducing the amount of people hurt overall and in the future.

Ultimately, self-driving vehicles have the potential to vastly improve the safety of

everyone who uses the road, directly as travelers and indirectly as pedestrians. Human error in

drivers, the habit of being tired, intoxicated, or otherwise distracted while behind the wheel, is

what causes most roadway accidents. Self-driving technology can prevent these accidents by

replacing humans as the ones in control. Unlike humans, they can never stop paying attention to

their surroundings. Sensors systems like the LiDar and the Radar used by Waymo allow level 5,

fully autonomous vehicles to be incredibly perceptive of road conditions and the locations of

near-by vehicles or cyclists, regardless of the weather or the time of day. Even less automated

vehicles of third or fourth level can lessen the burden on a human driver, as proven by Mercedes-

Benz. The company’s E-Class Drive Pilot can continuously follow traffic and detect and stay

within lane boundaries, and human intervention is only necessary in certain circumstances like

tight turns. The fact of the matter is that the systems they utilize, and the engineering involved in

creating their designs, makes them better equipped to drive than even the most diligent person. It

is true that the ethical question involved in giving a machine control during an accident, and

programing exactly how they should act in no-win situation, is an issue that must be given due

consideration. However, that does not change the fact that increasing the number and the use of

self-driving vehicles would do less physical harm than not deploying them in the first place. The
F 015 Luxury in Motion is being created with the idea that autonomous transportation will

completely transform the experience of a car ride, allowing passengers to regain the time lost to

transit and focus work or each other. Whether or not this is really the way driving culture will be

shaped in the future, self-driving vehicles will allow people to stop worrying about theirs’ and

others’ safety and start simply enjoying the ride.

 Works Cited

Austin, Michael. “2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class First Drive.” Autoblog, Autoblog, 8 Mar. 2016.

Currin, Andrew. “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” NHTSA, 16 Nov. 2017, www.nhtsa.gov/risky-

driving/distracted-driving.

Dodgson, Lindsay. “Why Mercedes' Decision to Let Its Self-Driving Cars Kill Pedestrians Is

Probably the Right Thing to Do.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Oct. 2016.

Golson, Jordan. “Mercedes Will Give Tesla's Autopilot Its First Real Competition This

Year.” The Verge, The Verge, 6 Jan. 2017.

Orlove, Raphael. “Now Mercedes Says Its Driverless Cars Won't Run Over Pedestrians, That

Would Be Illegal.” Jalopnik, Jalopnik.com, 17 Oct. 2016.

The Relative Frequency of Unsafe Driving Acts: Summary,

one.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/udashortrpt/summary.html.

“Waymo Safety Report On the Road to Fully Self-Driving.” Waymo, 2017.