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Category: Dangerous Activities
Potential Source of Harm: Autonomous Vehicles
Updated September 14, 2024
Nature of Harm
There is strong reason to believe that the benefits of autonomous vehicles will ultimately substantially outweigh the harms, including because of improvements in road safety. However, given the very large importance of automobiles to contemporary society and the dangers associated with driving, the potential for harm deserves significant attention (as it has received since automobiles were first invented).
In these early days of progress with autonomous vehicles, actual and perceived risks have been a significant barrier to deployment. These risks relate generally to the current inability of self-driving algorithms to properly recognize the many risks present in the driving environment, and in particular the complications of sharing of the road between autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles.
Example of incidents involving autonomous vehicles that have attracted public attention include:
a self-driving Uber (with a human safety driver) killing a pedestrian in Arizona in 2018, leading to suspension of Uber's autonomous vehicles program
multiple accidents by Teslas in Autopilot mode, including a first fatality in 2016 and a 2023 recall of 2 million vehicles following a US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation
incidents involving Cruise robotaxis in San Francisco, including a serious accident that led the company to suspend operations.
Many accidents involve the complex interactions of AI with humans (who tend to use AI other than as intended).
On the other hand, autonomous taxi company Waymo in September 2024 deployed a safety data hub that shows that accident rates for Waymo vehicles are significantly below those for human-driven vehicles.
Regulatory and Governance Solutions
The automotive sector is highly regulated, and the continuation of strict regulation for self-driving automobiles is likely to mean that harms will be kept to a manageable level (particularly in comparison to the large number of deaths and injuries that are already experienced from traffic accidents). In general, self-driving automobiles are not permitted to operate unless licensed by a local jurisdiction.
Specific legislation on automated vehicles is beginning to emerge. The UK adopted the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 in May 2024, providing the possibility for automated vehicles on UK roads by 2026.
Detailed regulation of the automotive sector means that non-regulatory governance initiatives may have relatively lesser importance than for other AI harms, although there are numerous important automotive standards developed by the private sector.
Technical Solutions
Autonomous vehicles are inherently a technical solution, and potentially one of the most important ones to result from advances in AI. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in its Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems for On-Road Motor Vehicles, has defined six levels of automation:
Level 0: No Driving Automation
Level 1: Driver Assistance
Level 2: Partial Driving Automation
Level 3: Conditional Driving Automation
Level 4: High Driving Automation
Level 5: Full Driving Automation.
Level 3 is the highest level of automation in widespread use, through Tesla Autopilot and similar offerings from other manufacturers. There have been some limited tests of Level 4 automation, such as the now-suspended Cruise robotaxi service in San Francisco.
There are a wide variety of technical approaches to autonomous driving. Notable ones include:
Mobileye, which uses both cameras and light distance and ranging (LIDAR) and uses a more rules-based system rather than relying primarily on machine learning
Wayve, which uses cameras and radar and relies most heavily on machine learning, taking an "end-to-end deep learning" approach that involves driving systems "learn[ing] from experience" (YouTube video interview with Wayve CEO Alex Kendall).
Government Entities
Essentially every country has a government regulator with authority over autonomous vehicles. Regulators may operate both at the national level (e.g. US NHTSA or UK Vehicle Certification Agency) and sub-national level (e.g. California Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Utilities Commission).
Private Entities
The companies developing automous vehicles and self-driving systems, like those discussed above, are the key private entities for addressing potential harms from autonomous vehicles.