Regulations must ensure public safety whilst encouraging autonomous vehicle innovation

Autonomous vehicle (AV) testing has already claimed one life: that of Elaine Herzberg, who was struck by a self-driving Uber in Tempe, Arizona, in March 2018. The failures leading up to the fatality are well documented, from Uber’s decision to disable Volvo’s automatic emergency braking (AEB) technology to the safety driver’s lack of attention at the time of the crash. Conclusions from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were damning. Among the many things the organisation was critical of was Uber’s lack of framework for risk mitigation, with poor policies and ineffective oversight of drivers exacerbating the danger.