For the past few days, the news of a Tesla Model S driver suffering a fatal crash has been doing rounds of the internet. It is a tragic loss indeed but it also puts light on some of the questions that are unanswered in the race for driverless cars. There is no denying the fact that autonomous vehicles can have significant impact on travel and other industries and they hold potential to significantly change ground transportation. However, the big question is if this incident would hurt the sentiments around this upcoming breed of vehicles and slow down the progress.

Tesla took its time, with the accident occurring on May 7 while the news came out only recently. The Model S in Autopilot failed to identify a white trailer against the bright sky and crashed without any attempt to slow down. There have been incidents in the past involving Tesla’s Autopilot however Tesla has always highlighted that it is a beta feature which is why there is a certain set of warnings and limitations associated with it. It is getting better but still requires attention from the driver.

There has been mixed response to the news of driverless cars in the past. The masses have been both against and in favour of this upcoming trend however this incident could make people sceptical. An incident was inevitable however it also sends the message that technology isn’t perfect and the users need to be more responsible. However, this could be an unfortunate sequence of less likely events and the potential of autonomous vehicles to make travel safer and faster can’t be dismissed at all.

A recent announcement by BMW could offer a solution. The major tech companies and automakers are working on their variants of driverless cars. BMW recently announced a new partnership with Intel and Mobileye to develop a new technology with the objective of putting driverless cars on roads by 2021. According to the three companies, their new platform would be made available to multiple manufacturers and join the alliance. They are trying to create common technology standards that would help multiple manufacturers update the vehicles faster and leverage the learning from any incidents or setbacks. According to Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich, this will be critical for advancing the safety aspects.

However the recent incidence could also result in an increased political pressure to tighten regulation thereby slowing down the developments in this space. The legal consequences of this incident could also have a significant impact on how the tech and auto companies go on about autonomous vehicles in future. The liability in such an incident has been a topic of discussion for a while and it is unclear how this one will be handled. The beta helped Tesla generate meaningful data about road conditions and driving patterns just like any other beta test run by tech companies. However, this incident will force regulators to rethink if partial automation has got major risks.

It is certain that full automation in vehicles will revolutionize things and make transport safer. However it is still long way off and might require to leaders to join hands for good.

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Only a while back we talked about how the cars of future will change to make things better for the travellers (Read: 5 car technologies for the traveller of future). Apart from safety features like V2V communications and biometric entry systems, autonomous cars are seen as the major upcoming trend. Many manufacturers are taking up the challenge and are trying to build cars that take the effort out of driving for travellers as well as urban commuters.

Google Lexus RX 450h Autonomous Car

(Image: By Driving_Google_Self-Driving_Car.jpg: Steve Jurvetson derivative work: Mariordo/ CC BY 2.0)

Google has been on the forefront of this and their autonomous cars have already covered thousands of miles on public roads. Recently they released the monthly report for their self driving car for the month of October and there haven’t been any reported crashes. The cars have covered a total of 1,268,108 miles in autonomous mode since the start of project in 2009. For the month of October, the numbers are:

• 23 Lexus RX450h SUVs – currently self-driving on public streets; 19 in Mountain View, CA, 4 in Austin, TX
• 25 prototypes – currently self-driving on public streets; 21 in Mountain View, CA & 4 in Austin, TX

According to them, Halloween has also been of help as the software learned to identify people dressed up in different colours and crazy dresses.

Halloween’s a great time to get some extra learning done. This week, lots of little ghouls, superheroes and even robots were running around Google with their families, so we asked them to hang out around our parked cars. This gives our sensors and software extra practice at recognizing children in all their unique shapes and sizes, even when they’re in odd costumes.

The report really hints at good days for the autonomous cars. Some concerns like keeping driver engaged still remain but they will be ironed out slowly by the time these cars come out for public use. Of course it is highly unlikely that travellers taking roadtrips will even consider driverless cars as an option but they could make for great local cabs or rental vehicles in a new destination.

Tesla has also been rolling out its partially autonomous technology on the Tesla Model S and the internet is full of videos showing how it saved the day. The Tesla Model S received the Autopilot feature via software update a while back and it requires occasional human intervention. Users are reporting that it has been learning with the inputs quickly and adapting accordingly. The data is uploaded to a central fleet learning network so that all the cars can learn. Other major car makers like Nissan and Mercedes Benz will be soon joining the league.

You can find the full report here.

While it all looks good for the autonomous cars, will the speeding tickets be issued to the car or the driver now?

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