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Talbott, professor at the American University, says Tesla’s approach to testing software on public roads without any driver supervision makes the automaker a “lone wolf” in what it otherwise sees as a safe industry. . “The rest of the industry says, ‘We want to do it right, we want the trust of the general public, we want regulators to be partners,” says Talbott, who is also a former motor vehicle regulator and lawyer. in product liability. So far, “getting it right” has meant using trained safety drivers and closed test courses to validate the vehicle’s software before testing on public roads, she says.
CR spoke to representatives from Argo AI, Cruise and Waymo, who are all testing prototype self-driving cars on public roads and working to create fully autonomous vehicles that are commercially available. While none directly comment on Tesla, all three have told us about their own security policies.
“Every change to our software goes through a rigorous release process and is tested through a combination of mock testing, closed-course testing and driving on public roads,” said Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp. , to CR.
Ray Wert of Cruise told CR that the company’s autonomous vehicles will only be deployed once the company is convinced the vehicles are safer than a human driver. “Our plan is to launch with the communities, not on them,” he says. And an Argo AI representative highlighted the company’s extensive driver training and software development standards, all of which are publicly available online.
Partners for Autonomous Vehicle Education (PAVE), an industry group, told CR it supports the use of highly trained professional test safety operators and that the use of untrained safety drivers could compromise greater public acceptance of vehicle automation.
Ultimately, it may be up to federal regulators to determine what types of vehicle software can be used on public roads, a step they have been reluctant to take until now. “I’ve never seen anything like we see today with Tesla, where it’s like the US Department of Transportation has blinders on the actions of this particular company,” Talbott said.
But there have been some recent moves towards more regulation. For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered new reporting requirements for vehicles involved in crashes while automation was in use.
“I hope the data will allow NHTSA to better monitor and manage the automotive and technology companies working to perfect automation systems over the next several decades,” said Reimer.
Ultimately, regulators will need to catch up with automakers’ plans to test rapidly evolving autonomous vehicle technology.
“Automotive technology is evolving very quickly and automation has a lot of potential, but decision-makers need to step up to put in place strong and sensible safety rules,” said William Wallace, head of safety policy at CR. “Otherwise, some companies will simply treat our public roads as if they were private testing grounds, without holding them responsible for safety. “
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