of publicly testing autonomous
vehicles. In December 2013, Gov.
Rick Snyder signed a bill into
law that advanced the public
testing
of
self-driving
cars
on Michigan roads. At the
time,
Snyder
was
one
of
several governors nationwide
who promoted the testing of
driverless
vehicles
in
their
states.
Some feel as though the
event could bring the testing
efforts of Uber and other tech
firms to a halt in Tempe and in
other U.S. cities that support
the technology. On campus,
University
students
have
expressed surprise in response
to
the
fatality,
but
worry
little will be done to prevent
autonomous vehicle tragedies
down the road.
Engineering senior Charu
Dwivedi said he thinks the
accident
will
be
regarded
as a critical moment in the
development of the driverless
cars.
“Especially with the speed
and recklessness that Uber and
other companies have been
trying to push the technology, I
wasn’t very surprised,” Dwivedi
said. “I’d say it’s an important
chapter that had to happen in
the progression of autonomous
vehicle technology.”
Information
senior
Ethan
Jannott,
who
has
focused
much of his undergraduate
career
investigating
and
designing autonomous vehicle
interfaces, said he thinks the
crash in Arizona was largely
unpreventable. Though he was
surprised the driverless Uber
failed to detect the pedestrian
crossing the street, he said it
would have been difficult for a
human driver to respond in time
as well.
“If it was a human in the
car, it would have struck her
in the same way,” Jannott said.
“Because it was really dark, a
person wouldn’t have picked
up on the pedestrian either.
That is only the first time an
autonomous car has killed a
pedestrian, so it was bound to
happen at some point ... I think
people may be slightly wearier
to accept the technology in the
near future, but it’s not going to
affect the industry.”
Tech
companies
and
automakers like Uber, Lyft,
Google, Waymo, General Motors
Corp. and Toyota have invested
billions into autonomous vehicle
research acting on a hunch that
soon driverless car will be the
norm and humans behind the
wheel will be a thing of the past.
Politicians, like Arizona Gov.
Doug Ducey, have welcomed
public
autonomous
vehicle
testing with “open arms and
wide open roads” even as much
remains unknown about the
technology.
Jannott commented while
it may seem dangerous to have
legislation
that
encourages
public testing of autonomous
cars, it’s too important to
reject.
“I think public testing has
to be done at some point,”
Jannott said. “I think we’re
right on the cusp of where it’s
totally accepted technology.
At the same time, the level
of autonomy that they’re at
is at a point where we can
trust it. I think there should
definitely be more adoption
of the technology around
the
country
for
safety
reasons.”
Many members of the
University’s
research
community
have
been
anticipating a tragedy like
the one in Tempe for quite
some time. Lionel Robert,
associate professor in the
School of Information, who
presides over a University
study
investigating
interactions
between
autonomous
vehicles
and pedestrians, said the
accident
was
something
which he and his colleagues
have been preparing for.
“The industry has been
holding its breath for a while
hoping this kind of thing doesn’t
occur,” Robert said. “I would
say, they’ve in some ways been
getting ready for when this does
occur. When someone is killed
at the hands of an autonomous
vehicle the real question is,
what’s next?”
According to Robert, the
University
holds
a
unique
position in the discussion of
self-driving technology because
of the resources from different
schools that are connected with
Mcity.
“From
the
technical
standpoint, we can test the
technology in a lot of different
areas,” Robert said. “The larger
picture is that we occupy a
unique position in our ability
to engage the public in this
conversation. I think Michigan
across the board, we have a lot
of the ability to lead proactive
change in this field because of
the strength and diversity of
our approach to autonomous
driving.
The
School
of
Engineering,
the
School
of
Information,
the
School
of
Public Policy are all getting
involved and chiming in on this
debate.”
Anuj
Pradhan,
assistant
research
scientist
at
the
University’s
Transportation
Research Institute, is involved
in
investigating
pedestrian
trust in autonomous vehicles.
He said while the fatality
was tragic, it will motivate
researchers to perfect future
iterations of the technology.
He noted that without failure
and accidents, those developing
the autonomous cars would
struggle to polish their product
for consumers.
“When there’s a fatality, it
means that we are even more
motivated to do our research
well so that fatalities don’t occur
in the future,” Pradhan said.
“Our research explicitly focuses
on preventing these things from
happening so when a tragedy
like this occurs, obviously we
are very distressed, but overall
for safety researchers, we just
get all the more motivated to
make sure that something like
this will never happen again.”
HAR MONIES OF KORE A
2 — Tuesday, March 27, 2018
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