By William Gray
In a world where a burrito may be delivered to your doorstep via drone, why is it that the automobile industry seems to be lagging so far behind the technological curve. In 2015, the National Safety Council estimates 38,300 people were killed on U.S. roads. Could this be the result of human error? When the driver takes their eyes off the road for a second, they immediately place themselves, and their passengers, at an extreme risk. Technology has blessed us with many amazing things, but also with a vast list of distractions. The question then remains, why do we take the risk of getting behind the wheel when our reaction time is dwarfed by that of a computer’s?
Uber has accepted the challenge of solving this problem and is set to release a fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh within the coming weeks. The first generation is a modified Ford Fusion hybrid sedan, outfitted with remote-sensing technology called lidar. Lidar uses lasers to detect objects and map out the world around the vehicle. This technology will fire off 1.4 million laser points per second to build a three-dimensional view of the car’s surroundings. By using a camera placed beneath the lidar, the 3D view is placed in color, allowing the device to detect traffic light changes. The car is outfitted with a monitor showing the 3-D map of what the vehicles “see” as they drive. The cars themselves will come with a driver and a safety engineer. The driver’s job is to keep their hands on the wheel and be prepared to manually take over control of the car if the situation so required. By simply stepping on the brake or pressing a big red button on the center console, the driver or engineer is able quickly and safely to switch from autopilot to manual. Once the engineer feels comfortable again, they may reengage autopilot mode by pressing a silver button on the center console. Preliminary tests show the Uber’s ability to stop at an intersection, take both left and right turns, and perhaps most importantly, remain exactly at the speed limit. These capabilities could potentially remove human error from our roadways.
Similar to the way Uber is currently being used, the self-driving vehicles may be hailed by using the Uber app. However, the only caveats are that the self-driving cars will only be available to two people at once, due to the front seats being taken by the driver and engineer, as well as only being available to Uber’s “most loyal” customers. Although these restrictions are in place, they are subject to change if the initial experiment runs well.
This technology seems impressive, but why would a San Francisco based company choose a northern city like Pittsburgh with its narrow streets, tunnels, and nearly 450 bridges? These obstacles, coupled with the city’s harsh winters make the Steel City a peculiar choice for Uber’s laboratory. However, the answer comes in the form of Pennsylvania’s lax transportation laws. More specifically, the state’s legislation does not specifically ban the use of driverless cars as long as there is still someone sitting behind the wheel. Pennsylvania’s transportation agency jumped at the opportunity to interpret this silence as a green light for autonomous vehicles. Their hope is to change Pittsburgh’s connotation from being the “Rust Belt” and into a technology hub. Roger Cohen, a policy director from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, stated, “we’d be committing governmental malpractice if we didn’t pursue this technology.” With city officials on board, Uber has placed 500 employees in Pittsburgh’s industrial Strip District to work on the project and are preparing to launch their fleet in the upcoming days.
Autonomous vehicles could become the safest advancement to our transportation system since the creation of the seat belt. Self-driving cars have the potential to eliminate motor vehicle deaths dramatically. Imagine a world where the news is no longer filled with stories of DUI deaths or “Teen crashes while texting and driving” stories. Although these are two extreme examples, autonomous vehicles have the potential to eliminate these kinds of incidents all together. These incidents may affect the entire community as a whole and self-driving automobiles are the logical solution to the problem. By adopting Pennsylvania’s interpretation of transportation laws and allowing autonomous vehicles on the roads, states will be able to reduce the number of vehicle related death by a dramatic margin.
Student Bio: William Gray is currently a 2L at Suffolk University Law School and a Staff Member of the Journal of High Technology Law. He holds a B.S. in Political Science with a minor in Criminal Justice from Quinnipiac University.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
