DAVE ROSS

This will kill the autonomous vehicle movement

Mar 20, 2018, 8:54 AM | Updated: 9:59 am

autonomous vehicle, autonomous vehicles...

Cars go by the scene near where a pedestrian was stuck by an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode late Sunday night in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

He’s pro-robot, but you won’t get KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross to buy an autonomous vehicle as they are now.

Dave Ross finally gets a Jibo

The first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle was reported Sunday in Tempe, Arizona. A woman walking her bicycle across the street outside the lines of a crosswalk was hit and later died.

Aarian Marshall with Wired explains a backup driver was at the wheel. However, it appears the driver didn’t see the pedestrian before the collision and the vehicle didn’t slow until after impact.

Uber suspended all road testing in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto.

The big question is who will be at fault? Arizona previously said it treats autonomous vehicles like regular vehicles, Marshall said. If that holds up in court, it means the driver will be at fault.

This, Dave says, will kill the autonomous vehicle movement.

“I’m not going to buy a car and be held responsible for the possible mistakes of its programmers,” he said. “There’s just no way I would want to be held responsible for that.”

Some say autonomous vehicles should removed from public streets until the technology improves.

In Washington state, steps are being taken to put the vehicles on the roads. In June, Gov. Jay Inslee signed an order setting guidelines for pilot programs. He also took a ride in an autonomous vehicle.

After the death in Arizona, Executive Director of the Washington State Transportation Commission Reema Griffith asked, “How acceptable is a death caused by a robot or an artificial-intelligence-driven vehicle versus a human?”

She says there could be a trade-off.

“No one likes the fact that we have over 37,000 people dying (in vehicle crashes) every year in this country; over a thousand in Washington state are killed every year,” she said. “And if we can go to a system that maybe drops that by 80, that’s great. But is it still OK? And is it realistic to think a computer or a robot can be 100% perfect all the time?”

Don’t let the self-driving cars hear this

According to KIRO 7, five companies have registered with Washington state to run autonomous vehicles. Griffith says the state won’t be ready for them until at least 2023.

Depending on the outcome of the fatality investigation in Arizona, consumers may not be ready for them for a lot longer.

Listen to the entire conversation here.

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This will kill the autonomous vehicle movement