Are self-driving cars safe? A UBC study says British Columbians aren’t too sure | 24CA News
Self-driving automobiles have been promoted by producers as enhancing the protection of roads, even being safer than most automobiles as a result of they eradicate “human error.”
But new analysis out of the University of British Columbia’s Research on Active Transportation (REACT) Lab exhibits that British Columbians aren’t solely satisfied, particularly on the subject of pedestrian consolation and security.
Active modes of transportation like strolling and biking are being promoted in parallel with the introduction of self-driving automobiles.
“There’s this feeling of being unsafe, that may change the behaviour of these active users… they might decide to not walk as often,” mentioned Gurdiljot Singh Gill a civil engineering PhD candidate who carried out the research. “And we don’t want these vehicles to be introduced in a way that discourages people from their behaviours.
“Our project is about learning how people would interact with these vehicles and how we can inform policy to introduce these vehicles responsibly.”
The analysis goals to bridge a spot. While there have been quite a few research on self-driving automobiles, few have checked out how folks will probably be interacting with them.
Participants needed to watch a number of video clips that confirmed folks interacting with automobiles. Half had been labelled as self-driven and the opposite half had been labelled as human-driven once they had been all really human-driven. The research was designed this option to detect bias.
Of the 1,133 folks surveyed throughout B.C., 41 per cent thought pedestrians confronted lowered security and luxury ranges throughout interactions with self-driving automobiles.
As self-driving automobiles, or SVDs turn out to be extra widespread, UBC researchers appeared into how folks work together with these automobiles and the way they are often responsibly launched.
REACT Lab / Provided
Gill mentioned a number of the largest takeaways from the research was how the automobiles ought to be launched.
“We asked questions like ‘Do you want a person to be in the drivers seat of a self-driving vehicle?’ and more than 75 per cent of people wanted someone there,” he mentioned. “Or ‘Do you want these vehicles to be clearly identified?” and over 90 per cent of people said they do.”
In addition to having someone in the drivers seat and vehicles being clearly identified, the team found that an introduction to self-driving vehicles would be best through shared vehicles like shuttles or buses.
“I really thought that people would be strongly skeptical or strongly optimistic, but that doesn’t appear to be the case,” mentioned Gill. “Most people are right in the middle, there isn’t a polarization that I thought there was.”
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