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A26 U.S. NEWS
Friday 5 June 2020
Study: Autonomous vehicles won't make roads completely safe

By TOM KRISHER wisdom that somehow this
DETROIT (AP) — A new technology is going to be
study says that while au- a panacea that is going to
tonomous vehicle technol- prevent all death."
ogy has great promise to IIHS researchers reviewed
reduce crashes, it may not the crash causes and de-
be able to prevent all mis- cided which ones could be
haps caused by human er- prevented, assuming that
ror. all vehicles on the road
Auto safety experts say hu- were autonomous, Cicchi-
mans cause about 94% of no said. Even fewer crashes
U.S. crashes, but the Insur- will be prevented while self-
ance Institute for Highway driving vehicles are mixed
Safety study says comput- with human driven cars,
er-controlled robocars will she said.
only stop about one-third Virginia-based IIHS is a non-
of them. profit research and edu-
The group says that while cation organization that's
autonomous vehicles funded by auto insurance
eventually will identify haz- companies.
ards and react faster than More than 60 companies
humans, and they won't have applied to test au-
become distracted or drive tonomous vehicles in Cali-
drunk, stopping the rest of In this Jan. 8, 2020 file photo, the Audi AI:ME self-driving concept vehicle is on display in the Audi fornia alone, but they have
the crashes will be a lot booth at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. yet to start a fully-robotic
harder. Associated Press large-scale ride-hailing ser-
"We're still going to see vice without human back-
some issues even if autono- cal problems. Self-driving what's around them as sor at Duke University who up drivers.
mous vehicles might react vehicles can prevent those, well," she said. is familiar with the study, Several companies includ-
more quickly than humans the study found. Just how many crashes are said preventing even one- ing Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo
do. They're not going to However, the robocars prevented depends a lot third of the human-caused and General Motors' Cruise
always be able to react in- may not be able to prevent on how autonomous ve- crashes is giving technol- had pledged to do it dur-
stantaneously," said Jessica the rest, including predic- hicles are programmed, ogy too much credit. Even ing the past two years, but
Cicchino, and institute vice tion errors such as misjudg- Cicchino said. More crash- vehicles with laser, radar those plans were delayed
president of research and ing how fast another ve- es would be stopped if the and camera sensors don't when the industry pulled
co-author of the study. hicle is traveling, planning robocars obey all traffic always perform flawlessly in back after an Uber auto-
The IIHS studied over 5,000 errors including driving too laws including speed limits. all conditions, she said. mated test vehicle hit and
crashes with detailed fast for road conditions and But if artificial intelligence "There is a probability that killed a pedestrian in March
causes that were collected execution errors including allows them to drive and even when all three sensor 2018 in Tempe, Arizona.
by the National Highway incorrect evasive maneu- react more like humans, systems come to bear, that Companies are continuing
Traffic Safety Administra- vers or other mistakes con- then fewer crashes will be obstacles can be missed," to update and hone their
tion, separating out those trolling vehicles. stopped, she said. Cummings said. "No driver- autonomous vehicle sys-
caused by "sensing and For example, if a cyclist or "Building self-driving cars less car company has been tems.
perceiving" errors such as another vehicle suddenly that drive as well as people able to do that reliably. Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk
driver distraction, impaired veers into the path of an do is a big challenge in it- They know that too." last year promised a fleet
visibility or failing to spot autonomous vehicle, it self," IIHS Research Scien- Researchers and people of autonomous robotaxis
hazards until it was too late. may not be able to stop tist Alexandra Mueller said in the autonomous vehicle would start operating in
Researchers also separated fast enough or steer away in a statement. "But they'd business never thought 2020. But recently he has
crashes caused by human in time, Cicchino said. "Au- actually need to be better the technology would be said he hopes to deploy
"incapacitation" including tonomous vehicles need to than that to deliver on the capable of preventing all the system with humans
drivers impaired by alco- not only perceive the world promises we've all heard." crashes now caused by hu- monitoring it in early 2021,
hol or drugs, those who fell around them perfectly, Missy Cummings, a robotics mans, she said, calling that depending on regulatory
asleep or drivers with medi- they need to respond to and human factors profes- "layman's conventional approval.q

Indianapolis to dismantle Confederate monument in park

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indi- "Our streets are filled with reminder of our state's hor-
anapolis will remove from a voices of anger and an- rific embrace of the Ku Klux
park a monument dedicat- guish, testament to centu- Klan a century ago," he
ed to Confederate soldiers ries of racism directed at said.
who died at a Union prison Black Americans," Hogsett The Indianapolis Parks
camp in the city, the mayor said in a news release. "We Board passed a resolution
announced Thursday. must name these instances in 2017 to remove the mon-
The grave monument, of discrimination and never ument once funding was
which was relocated to forget our past – but we secured, but that never
Garfield Park nearly a cen- should not honor them. happened. The city is iden-
tury ago from its original "Whatever original purpose tifying a source of funding,
location in a cemetery, will this grave marker might with the expected cost of
In this Aug. 15, 2017, file photo, a man runs in Garfield Park of In- be dismantled by contrac- once have had, for far too the project ranging from
dianapolis past a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers tors in the coming days, long it has served as noth- approximately $50,000 to
who died at a Union prison camp in the city during the Civil War.
Associated Press Mayor Joe Hogsett said. ing more than a painful $100,000, Hogsett said.q