Self-driving cars linked to hundreds of accidents in the United States

Over the course of 10 months, nearly 400 traffic accidents advanced driver assistance technologies have been involved in the United States, the federal government’s leading automotive safety regulator revealed in its first large-scale data release on these growing systems.

In 392 accidents cataloged by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from July 1 last year to May 15, six people died and five were seriously injured.

Teslas operating on autopilot, the most ambitious fully autonomous driving mode, or any of its associated component characteristics, have had 273 accidents. Five of those Tesla accidents were fatal.

The revelations are part of a larger federal agency effort for determine the safety of advanced driving systems as they become more and more common.

Beyond the futuristic charm of self-driving cars, dozens of car manufacturers they released automated components in recent years, including features that let you take your hands off the wheel under certain conditions and help you park in parallel.

In the statement, the NHTSA revealed that Honda vehicles were involved in 90 accidents and Subarus in 10. Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai and Porsche each reported five or fewer.

“These technologies hold great promise for improving safety, but we need to understand how these vehicles work in real-world situations, “said Steven Cliff, the agency’s administrator.” This will help our researchers quickly identify potential trends in defects as they emerge. “

Explanation

Speaking to reporters ahead of Wednesday’s launch, Cliff also warned against drawing conclusions from the data gathered so far, noting that does not take into account factors such as the number of cars from each manufacturer on the road and equipped with this type of technology. .

“The data may raise more questions than it answers,” he said.

About 830,000 Tesla cars in the United States, they are equipped with autopilot or the company’s other driver assistance technologies, offering an explanation of why Tesla vehicles accounted for nearly 70% of reported accidents.

Ford, GM, BMW and others have similar advanced systems that allow hands-free driving in certain road conditions, but far fewer models have been sold.

However, these companies have sold millions of cars over the past two decades that are equipped with individual components of the driver assistance systems.

Components include so-called lane keeping, which helps drivers stay in their lanes andadaptive cruise controlwhich maintains the speed of a car and brakes automatically when the traffic ahead slows down.

Cliff said NHTSA will continue to collect data on crashes involving these types of features and technologies, noting that the agency will use it as a guide to establish rules or requirements on how they should be designed and used.

The data was collected on the basis of an order issued by the NHTSA a year ago requesting automakers report incidents involving cars equipped with advanced driver assistance systems, also known as ADAS or level 2 automated driving systems.

The order was sparked in part by accidents and deaths in the past six years involving Teslas operating on autopilot. Last week, the NHTSA expanded an investigation to see if the Autopilot has any design and technology flaws. pose security risks.

The agency is investigating 35 accidents that occurred while the autopilot was activatedof which nine have resulted in the deaths of 14 people since 2014. It also opened a preliminary investigation into 16 incidents in which Tesla cars under autopilot control collided with emergency vehicles that had stopped and had flashing lights.

Under the order issued last year, NHTSA has also collected data on accidents or incidents involving fully automated vehicles that are still mostly under development. but they are tested on public roads.

Manufacturers of these vehicles include GM, Ford, and other mainstream automakers, as well as tech companies like Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company.

Lessons

These types of vehicles have been involved in 130 accidents, the NHTSA found. One resulted in a serious injury, 15 with minor or moderate injuries, and 108 without injuries. Many of the accidents involving automated vehicles caused fender flaps or bumper flaps because they are mainly used at low speeds and in city driving.

Waymo, who operates a fleet of driverless taxis in Arizona, was involved in 62 accidents. GM’s cruise division, which has just started offering self-driving taxi rides in San Francisco, has been involved in 23.

A minor accident involving an automated test vehicle manufactured by Pony.ai, a start-up, led to the recall of three of the test vehicles from the company for the correct software.

The NHTSA order was an unusually bold step for the regulator, who has been criticized in recent years for not being more assertive with automakers.

“The agency is collecting data to determine whether these systems pose an unreasonable safety risk in the field,” said J. Christian Gerdes, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Stanford University Center for Automotive Research.

An advanced driver assistance system it can drive, brake and accelerate vehicles by itselfalthough drivers must remain alert and ready to take control of the vehicle at any time.

Safety experts fear that these systems allow drivers to give up active control of the car and could lead them to believe their cars are being driven by them. When technology goes wrong or unable to handle a particular situation, drivers may not be prepared to quickly take control.

Some independent studies have explored these technologies, but still they didn’t show if they reduce accidents or improve safety.

In November, Tesla recalled nearly 12,000 vehicles which were part of the beta test of Full Self Driving, a version of Autopilot designed for use on city streets, after launching a software update that the company says could cause accidents due to unexpected activation of cars. ‘Emergency braking system.

The NHTSA order required companies to provide crash data when advanced driver assistance systems and automated technologies were in use within 30 seconds of impact. While this data provides a bigger picture than ever of the behavior of these systems, it is still difficult to determine whether they reduce accidents or improve safety.

The agency did not collect data that would allow investigators to easily determine whether using these systems is safer than turning them off in the same situations.

PB