Are Self-Driving Cars a Threat to Biker Safety?
Following yet another accident involving a self-driving car, how concerned should we be about the consequences of emerging technology?
If the general media is to be believed, self-driving cars are the answer to all our transportation woes. Accidents will be a thing of the past and put an end to injuries and deaths. Traffic will be automated so there’ll be no more traffic congestion. On top of that, all cars will be electric as well so we’ll avoid an environmental catastrophe and save the world. In short, we will be living in a utopia in just a few years.
Unfortunately, the reality of self-driving cars is here to punch us on the nose. Following a recent pedestrian death caused by an Uber self-driving vehicle, a new report from the Law Firm Newswire reveals that a motorcyclist is now suing GM after he was hit by one of their test cars. The accident happened in San Francisco, California, last December. According to the rider, the Chevrolet vehicle changed lanes, then changed back again and knocked him off his bike. According to the DMV accident report, the car sensed the vehicle in the lane had decelerated, and in response moved back. They also claim the biker had moved to the center lane after splitting the middle and right lane.
The lawsuit suggests negligence from Chevrolet because the vehicle wasn’t operating “within traffic laws”. The claim is that the self-driving car’s behavior was unpredictable, therefore the move it made was dangerous.
As more self-driving car testing takes place on public roads, we have to remember they are built & programmed by humans. Humans that are developing a technology that won’t be perfected for a very long time.
The reality is that we aren’t anywhere near “fully” automated cars being on the market, let alone becoming ubiquitous. The sensor technology is just one part of the equation that’s not ready for prime time yet. There’s also the programming to deal with every complex situation that could develop. We’re years, possibly decades, of testing away from reaching the promised utopia. Testing that will take place on the roads.
For bikers, things like seeing the familiar blue glow from inside a car warns us someone is nose deep in Facebook. We can also look at a driver’s head when they are waiting at a stop sign to join traffic and get a visual on whether they’ve seen us or not. However, visual cues like those mean nothing when the driver isn’t driving at all. Thus, this lawsuit against GM could be the first of many.
As more self-driving car testing takes place on public roads, we have to remember they are built and programmed by humans. Humans that are developing a technology that won’t be perfected for a very long time. Along the way, building self-driving cars is going to be treated like making an omelet. That means another hazard on the road to consider and we have to make sure we’re not the eggs that get broken.
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