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ACCEPTING TECHNOLOGY’S GIFT

If one asks a random person if they believe themselves to be good drivers, the response is almost always yes. It is impressive that our species has found a way to transport its members at such incredible speeds, largely while staying alive. However, according to the CDC, in 2014 motor-vehicle traffic-related injuries resulted in 33,736 deaths in the United States. By comparison, firearms caused 33,599 deaths [1]. How to deal with firearms is one of the most controversial topics in politics, yet these devices kill fewer people than the utilitarian tools that the masses climb into every day. While driving a car may seem objectively to be an easy task, a small distraction or any kind of impairment by a multitude of afflictions - by even one person - can lead to injury or death to multiple people.

Even hyper-focused driving is sometimes not enough. The speeds at which cars travel, especially on highways, is far quicker than we, as human, were designed to move. Despite the danger inherent in operation of motor vehicles, the way that humans have built up their infrastructure, especially in the United States, causes driving cars to be a necessity for millions of people.

In an effort to make the daily commute safer, many automotive companies have introduced vehicles with some degree of autonomy. One of the most prominent and useful of these autonomous functions is pre-collision software (PCS). PCS takes key automobile controls out of slower human hands; replaced instead with a computer that makes extremely quick calculations and adjusts the car’s speed, braking and direction accordingly. PCS accomplishes these tasks magnitudes more quickly than a human brain and body can operate, in the hope of being able to mitigate or even stop any damage to human life.

As the goal of technology is to better human life, PCS has the potential to be one of the best technologies from a sheer lifesaving perspective. While there is little question that PCS is a practical and worth-while technology to pursue, the only questions lie with the effectiveness of particular systems. Several modern car companies, including Ford, are already implementing these systems in a clearly effective way.
DISTRACTED DRIVING
While our driving is not necessarily getting better, distractions are getting more and more numerous. Smartphones seem to have replaced the old fashioned car radio as the primary source, but they are now joined by smart watches and smart glasses to jostle drivers’ attention away from the road. These factors can clearly lead to an increase in the number of accidents.

A widely accepted figure published by Yang and Peng provides that 6% of driving time is done while distracted. [2] A study and simulation operated by J. Przybyla and his colleagues combined this information with more collected data to find that “the crash rate was calculated to be 0.017 crashes per mile” These same researchers also found that for every “distracted event”, that is an event that would draw attention away from driving, there was a 0.03% chance of a crash [3]. While these numbers may seem low, it only takes one driver to permanently change the lives of himself and potentially multiple others.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
While the purpose of autonomous vehicles (AV’s) at first may seem to be simple convenience, a further examination will reveal that these machines have the potential to make driving magnitudes safer than it is today. Computers do not get tired or distracted like their human counterparts. Many would argue that machines are not perfect, and that a computer glitch could cause the end of a human life. Fortunately, this technology does not have to be perfect. It simply needs to be better than the comparable elements of human drivers. As this technology is implemented, it will continue to be constantly advanced, leading to safer driving conditions for both those in the technologically advanced vehicles and those simply on the road with them.

Autonomous vehicles may at first conjure up images of cars that operate without any human interaction. While these types of vehicles are being created and tested, they are built upon simpler technologies that are widely available and in use today. A vehicle has a level of autonomy if it has functions that a computer controls rather than the driver. These include lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control, and automated parking. All of these systems are designed to control specific driving tasks, eliminating the possibility of human error. According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, these systems have taken the pivotal step from being a level two automated system to a level three automated system. The key difference is that these level three technologies no longer require human observation of the surroundings, replaced instead by the system in this key supervisory task [4]. In just the past decade, autonomous driving technology has begun to advance from near science fiction to commonplace in even the average automobile.

PRE-COLLISION SOFTWARE
Pre-collision software is relatively simple. A car uses a combination of cameras, radar, and other sensors as inputs, processes any possibility of a collision, and changes the course of the automobile if necessary. A simulation by K. Chang on cars operating with PCS found that, among other safety benefits brought by the technology, “[t]he number of moderately to fatally injured drivers who wore their seat belts could have been reduced by 29% to 50%” [5]. Another study done by Ron Actuarial Intelligence found use of PCS software led to a decrease of insurance claims by 44% compared to those driving similar vehicles not equipped with PCS [6]. A dramatic reduction in both the amount of accidents and the severity of those accidents is exactly what PCS appears to be accomplishing. Indicators are that the benefits of PCS are just starting to be realized. In his article “Road collisions avoidance using vehicular cyber-physical systems: a taxonomy and review”, Riaz proposes the idea of in-car vehicular cyber-physical system using the added step of vehicle-2-vehicle communication to enhance the road safety [7]. He suggests that the best way to make use of AV technology would be to enable and allow cars to communicate with one another as they are driving. This communication would allow AV’s to operate with greater information about not only their current surroundings, but also what their surroundings will be in the near future. This information would not only allow PCS to save people from close calls, but save people from collisions that would have taken place several seconds into the future.

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IT IS ALL AROUND US
In the near past, and even now, there is a certain stigma around autonomous vehicles. A fear of some omnipotent artificial intelligence or another person being able to hack into and take control of a vehicle has many afraid of anything they cannot control in their vehicle. Just last week, my parents were shocked and horrified to see Uber’s self-driving, nearly fully autonomous vehicles prowling the streets of Pittsburgh. Myself, being the more modern and tech-loving member of the family, was shocked by their disdain, borderline fear of such miraculous technology. Although this lack of appreciation may lack a solid foundation, it is a feeling shared by many, and thus must be factored into the incorporation of this technology into our day to day lives. Personally, I believe that successful engineers are not simply developers and implementers of technology. The best engineers have to be able to overcome the very basic, sometimes intuitive and even irrational resistance to change exemplified by new and especially revolutionary technology. My goal is to be a successful bridge between the professionals and the public they are trying to serve during my career.

Many luxury brands are already well on the way to full automation. Companies such as Tesla and Mercedes Benz, along with the aforementioned Uber, are selling or using vehicles that require minimum human attention. The price tag along with a general distrust will mean that these companies will not be the ones to push automated technology to the forefront for the general public. Instead, it will be companies such as Hyundai, Toyota, and Ford that will have the largest impact on the way the most common – and perhaps most doubting - citizens view this technology.

Ford has already implemented several levels of PCS and more advanced automation in most of their standard vehicles. Their website lists traffic sign recognition, intelligent speed assist, active city stop, blind spot alert, hill start assist, curve control, and many more, including pre-collision assist [8]. All of these technologies take some semblance of control from the driver for their own safety. The common man’s car is already automated, whether its owner realizes it or not.
IT IS COMMON SENSE
Despite the maddening amount of division on almost every topic in today’s society, no one can deny that distracted driving is an issue. Those that decide to pull out a cell phone while driving know full well that it is something that puts themselves and those around them in danger. Thus the issue is not whether or not distracted driving is bad, but it is whether or not the additional safety provided by automated vehicle technology is worth the fear brought on by a lack of control. The consumer market has a clear answer: yes. When a car company as common as Ford implements something into their full line of vehicles, it is because their customers want it. And the most obvious form that AV technology can take to save lives is to avoid crashes, the one thing that actually causes human injury. One might argue that this may be an example of shadow safety, and that customers in fact are buying the illusion of safety. The statistics mentioned in this essay prove that this is false. PCS technology saves lives. This foothold is vital to ease the general public into the future of vehicular safety. With time, “It's estimated that AV technology will likely lead to a 90 percent reduction in crashes…” [9] People have proven that they are extraordinarily stubborn when it comes to changing their habits. Because this is the case, society must turn to its increasingly powerful technology to save roadside casualties.

SOURCES

[1] K. Kochaneck “Deaths: Final Data for 2014” National Vital Statistics Report 7.30.2016 Accessed 10.22.2016 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_04.pdf

[2] C. Oh and T. Kim, "Estimation of rear-end crash potential using vehicle trajectory data," Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol. 42, pp. 1888-1893, 2010. Accessed 10.25.2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00014575/42

[3] J. Przybyla, “Estimating risk effects of driving distraction: A dynamic errorable car-following model” 7.13.2014 Accessed 10.25.2016 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.pitt.idm.oclc.org/document/6338913/

[4] SAE International, “AUTOMATED DRIVING LEVELS OF DRIVING AUTOMATION ARE DEFINED IN NEW SAE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD J3016” Accessed 10.30.2016 http://www.sae.org/misc/pdfs/automated_driving.pdf

[5] K. Chang, “A simulation-based framework for multi-objective vehicle fleet sizing of automated material handling systems: an empirical study” 4.23.2014 Accessed 10.22.2016 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fjos.2014.6

[6] SAS “Collision avoidance systems can decrease accidents 40 percent, suggests preliminary research findings” 4.05.2014 Accessed 10.22.2016 http://www.sas.com/en_my/news/press-releases/2014/may/ron-actuarial-insurance.html

[7] F. Riaz “Road collisions avoidance using vehicular cyber-physical systems: a taxonomy and review” 6.22.2016 Accessed 10.22.2016 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186%2Fs40294-016-0025-8

[8] Ford “Accident Avoidance and Driver Assist Technologies” Accessed 10.30.2016 https://corporate.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2014-15/product-vehicle-avoidance.html

[9] C. Dolan “Self-driving cars & the bumpy road ahead: can your car drive better without you?” 2.01.2016 Accessed 10.25.2016 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LT&u=upitt_main&id=GALE|A446293708&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&userGroup=upitt_main&authCount=1

University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering

11.01.2016