Three bills were introduced in the Texas Legislature this session in hopes of allowing testing of them in Texas. Nevada, Michigan and Florida already have passed laws to allow testing of self-driving cars in their states.
Wherever the cars are tested, the reports of accidents involving the cars should be transparent — which hasn’t been the case in California.
The companies doing the testing should be able to keep details of accidents to themselves when testing is done on private company property. But if the testing is on public streets, reports of any accidents that occur should be made public.
Safety is obviously the biggest question on everyone’s mind. The Associated Press reported the cars use cameras, radar and laser sensors that give them a greater awareness of surroundings than humans have. And the reaction times of self-driving cars should be faster than human reflexes, the AP noted.
Although the cars from the seven companies with testing permits have the ability to drive themselves, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles requires “safety drivers” to sit behind the wheels while the cars are operating.
Whether the cars or the safety drivers are operating the vehicles, the test cars have been involved in small number of accidents.
The problem is the DMV allows collision reports to remain confidential, citing California law. The DMV reported earlier this month there have been four accidents since September. But the state agency would not comment further.
A source told the AP two of the accidents happened with the cars in self-driving mode and the other two with safety drivers in control. Three of the accidents involved cars owned by Google Inc., which has permits for 23 cars, the source said. The fourth involved one of the two test vehicles owned by parts supplier Delphi Automotive.
The day after the reports of the four accidents since September, Google revealed in a web post its self-driving cars had been in 11 minor accidents in the past six years.
“Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,” wrote Chris Urmson, director of the Google self-driving project.
The accidents all had light damage with no injuries and occurred over 1.7 million miles of testing with 1 million of the miles while the cars were self-driving, he said.
However, Google has not made public any records.
Delphi Automotive sent the AP an accident report about its accident. The test car was beingdriven by a human when it was broadsided while waiting to make a left turn. according to the report.
All reports of accidents on public roads should be made public promptly by the owners of the test cars. Some members of the public understandably will be apprehensive about the safety of the vehicles, and the companies seeking public support should be willing to be transparent about accidents.
Self-driving cars appear to have a good safety record so far, and the testing could someday result in safer vehicles. Let the public follow the safety aspect in testing for themselves.
©2015 the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Lubbock, Texas) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
