WASHINGTON D.C. – Representatives from the automobile industry, the ride-sharing company Lyft and academia discussed efforts to create vehicles that don’t need a human driver in a hearing Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., a member of the committee, said he was intrigued by the potential impact of self-driving cars on the economy of Colorado.
Gardner cited Colorado’s recent population growth – 100,000 from 2014 to 2015, good for the second-fastest growing state in the country – as an example of how driverless technology would positively impact cross-state transportation.
“And this technology I think, is one of the keys to support a thriving ski industry, resort industry up in the mountains where you’re limited to the amount of tunnels you can put through a mountain – both from a cost perspective and from a physical perspective – and so I think this is an incredibly fascinating opportunity,” Gardner said.
“There are lots of reasons people are moving to Colorado,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the chairman of the committee, added, drawing laughs for a reference to legalized recreational marijuana.
“And automation’s probably a good thing for that,” Gardner said.
But Gardner expressed concern about the ability of the car sensors to immediately react when an animal or person darts in front of a car.
“How are we going to address issues such as the moral choice that a car is going to have to make, whether it veers left and there’s a car next to it, and if it veers right and goes into a ditch, and the car itself is carrying passengers?” Gardner asked the committee witnesses.
Although industry witnesses cited the variety of sensors on driverless cars that take into account their surrounding environments, including the use of radar and other technology to make snap decisions, some risks remain.
“The way we think about this is, ‘let’s try hardest to avoid vulnerable road users – pedestrians, cyclists – and then, beyond that, try to avoid other vehicles and then, beyond that, avoid the things that don’t move in the world,” replied Chris Urmson, director of self-driving cars at Google X.
“And be transparent and say that, ‘if you’re in this vehicle, this is the way it’s going to behave, to the best effort, and then make the decision if you’re OK with it or not.”
Driverless cars could have a drastic impact on reducing vehicular deaths.
Earlier in the hearing, Urmson cited data showing that, of the 38,000 vehicle-related deaths in 2015, 94 percent were caused by human error.
Companies, including Google, are beginning to test out self-driving prototypes.
Mary Cummings, director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab and Duke Robotics at Duke University, was excited about the advances, but she stressed the need to continue testing autonomous technology – including its vulnerability to cyber hacking – before moving too far forward.
“I am decidedly less optimistic about what I perceive to be a rush to field systems that are absolutely not ready for widespread deployment, and certainly not ready for humans to be completely taken out of the driver’s seat,” she said.
Edward Graham is a student at the American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald. Reach him at egraham@durangoherald.com.
