Robot Cars Are a Moral Imperative

So
tweeted tech venture capitalist Marc Andreessen after the crash
that injured and killed comedians traveling on a New Jersey highway
with Saturday Night Live star Tracy Morgan earlier this week. More
than 90 percent of all traffic accidents are the result of human
error. The New York Times is reporting the recent findings
by Virginia Tech researchers who are estimating
how many fewer deaths and accidents would occur with enhanced
driving technologies. From the Times:

But two studies by researchers at Virginia Tech — H. Clay
Gabler, a professor of biomedical engineering, and Kristofer D.
Kusano, a research associate — suggest how much safer robot cars
might be. They found that even cars that are not fully autonomous
but which automate some of the most dangerous aspects of driving
could have as big an effect as seatbelts have had…

They found that lane-departure warning systems would have
prevented 30.3 percent of the crashes caused by lane drifting, and
25.8 percent of the injuries. Rear-end and collision warning
systems and automatic braking would have prevented only
3.2 percent to 7.7 percent of crashes, but would have reduced their
severity. The number of people injured or killed would have
declined in the range of 29 to 50 percent, the researchers
concluded.

By comparison, seatbelts have reduced injuries and fatalities by
about 50 percent, and are considered
the most beneficial auto safety measure of all time, Mr. Gabler
said.

In 2012, more than 33,000 people were killed in traffic
accidents in the United States. In April, the free-market think
tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute issued a report
reviewing the effects that regulation might have on the
introduction of self-driving vehicles and warned:

Policy makers must remember that their actions can produce harm.
If automated vehicles are demonstrated to be significantly safer
than manually driven vehicles, any misstep, convoluted law, or rule
that leads to unnecessary higher costs or delays translates to
increased injury and death.

The next generation will be shocked at the carnage that we
tolerated during the primitive era in which people were actually
allowed to drive themselves down highways.