Are autonomous cars the new airbags? Friday, 16 October 2015

Driverless cars have the potential to be the most significant improvement in road safety, according to the head of one of Australia’s largest automotive parts manufacturers.

Bosch Australia CEO Gavin Smith was speaking at the Australian Road Safety Conference on the Gold Coast this week. He said, while autonomous vehicles have many potential benefits such as reduced fuel consumption and less congestion, above all was reduced collisions and reduced road trauma.

“While I’m a strong supporter of the safe system approach to road safety, I do believe that the biggest bang for the buck comes from the rapid development and accelerated adoption of driver assistance technologies,” he said. “After all, the root cause of more than 90% of crashes is human error.”

Smith said most early efforts to improve road safety were passive in nature such as crumple zones, interior design for occupant safety, seatbelts and airbags. However, it wasn’t till the advent of anti-lock braking systems in the 1970s that active safety systems were deployed, aimed at accident prevention rather than just occupant protection.

Subsequent developments such as electronic steering control, radars, cameras and ultrasonic sensors have made the cars of today easier to drive and safer for occupants, pedestrian and other road users.

“The underlying technology that will enable fully autonomous driving is already implemented in stand-alone and combined functions,” he said.

“Functions such as adaptive cruise control, drowsy driver detection, lane keeping support, traffic jam assist, auto emergency braking and auto parking, to name but a few. These functions are already mature and by now well accepted in the market.”

He expects by the 2020s, vehicles with the highway pilot level of automation will enable the driver to cede full control of all safety critical functions under certain traffic or environmental conditions. Before then, governments will need to be ready for the arrival of autonomous vehicles.

“Globally, the most progressive countries and states are enabling the earliest possible adoption of autonomous vehicles by sensible adjustment of regulation to facilitate vehicles trials and mass market entry when the technology is commercially available,” Smith said.

“In this regard, Australia is already quite late, although South Australia should be congratulated for taking a leading position so far. Given what’s at stake, embracing autonomous driving should become a national priority.”

 

Photo: Bosch