Suzanne Philion’s Post

Important column from Timothy Lee in his latest Understanding AI column unpacking how the decisions policymakers make over the near term will have a major impact on where autonomous driving tech is deployed. Improving road safety - with over 40,000 people losing their lives on American roads every year - can and should be a common goal we all urgently work toward. 🇺🇸 "The most obvious reason this debate matters is safety. Waymo estimates that over the first 70 million miles, Waymo’s vehicles got into major crashes—those serious enough to cause an injury or trigger an airbag—about 80 percent less often than comparable human-driven vehicles. "It’s always worth taking a company’s own statistics with a grain of salt. But I’ve consulted multiple traffic safety experts over the last two years and they’ve consistently told me Waymo’s research is credible. A large majority of crashes involving Waymo vehicles have been clearly the result of a human driver in another vehicle. For example, one of the most common crash types involves a human driver rear-ending a Waymo. "So while opponents of autonomous vehicles sometimes claim that banning robotaxis is a pro-safety move, it’s more likely to cost lives than to save them." https://lnkd.in/gvJtRbuq