The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) analysis of U.S. road accidents has shown that self-driving cars, touted by developers as a way to get rid of road accidents, are likely to prevent only a third of all accidents.
According to the IIHS study, the other two-thirds of crashes were caused by errors that autonomous driving systems can't handle better than drivers. Traffic experts say that about nine out of 10 crashes are the result of human error. About 40 people died in car accidents in the United States last year.
Self-driving car companies are positioning fully automated driving as a tool to significantly reduce road deaths by removing the human driver from the equation. But the IIHS study paints a more detailed picture of driver errors, showing that not all errors can be corrected with camera, radar and other sensor-based autonomous driving technologies.
In the course of the study, IIHS experts analyzed more than 5000 typical accidents throughout the country, recorded in police reports, and identified human error-related factors that contributed to the accident. Only one-third of all crashes were the sole result of control and perception errors or driver incapacitation.
But most crashes were the result of more complex errors, including misjudging the possible maneuvers of other road users, driving too fast or too slow for the road conditions, or improper evasive maneuvers. Many accidents have occurred as a result of a combination of several errors.
"Our goal was to show that if you don't address these issues, self-driving cars don't provide significant safety benefits," said Jessica Cicchino, IIHS vice president of research and co-author of the study.
Source: 3dnews.ru