US regulator: autonomous control systems in cars can save lives

Officials believe that a Tesla electric car accident with autopilot on should not affect the overall development of the industry.

On Friday, Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said that automakers "can't wait for the ideal" when it comes to developing and implementing autonomous driving systems. He also said that automation can “save lives”, while in the United States the number of fatal accidents has increased by 8% since 2014.

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Rozkaynd made his statement, commenting on the Tesla accident with autopilot on , which caused the death of the owner of the electric car. The Autopilot system was turned on, but could not recognize the trailer ahead of the truck in time. The company Tesla reported earlier that the sensors of the car did not recognize this object due to bright sunlight.



Representatives of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on July 1 expressed the need for additional study of all the circumstances of this case. Regulatory officials want to determine the cause of the accident and make sure that the incidents with Tesla cars are not the result of mistakes made when developing a computer control system. The company itself calls this technology Autopilot. In fact, this is a virtual assistant driver who can help keep the lane, control the speed or park. The system can drive the car on its own, but Tesla Motors does not recommend it, either, especially placing the responsibility of using the Autopilot on the driver.



Formally, the manufacturer of the electric vehicle is not to blame. The autopilot feature is disabled in Tesla electric vehicles by default. The company previously stated the following: “Safety is a top priority for Tesla, we design and build cars primarily based on this. We also ask our customers to train safely while using our cars ... The Tesla autopilot is the most advanced of the existing systems, but it does not turn the car into an unmanned vehicle and does not take responsibility from the driver. ”



Earlier, the head of Tesla Motors stated the following: "... around the world, about a million people die in car accidents every year. About half of this million could have been saved if Tesla's autopilot were accessible to everyone." Musk claims that autopilot reduces the likelihood of a vehicle in an accident by about 50%.



The NHTSA head seems to agree with this opinion. He made it clear that the regulator does not plan to impose restrictions on the technology of "virtual assistants" of the motorist. As far as can be judged, measures will not be imposed on Tesla. Officially, the investigation is still ongoing, so the representative of the regulator in his speech did not touch on the aspects of the May accident.







A spokesman for the US Department of Transportation said last week that “autonomy does not mean a driving ideal,” adding that “automakers should take these safety aspects very seriously,” referring to security measures regarding the use of automatic vehicle control systems.



A number of automotive industry representatives believe that a Tesla electric car accident could have a negative impact on the future development of autonomous vehicle control systems. Bob Yousef, one of the leaders of the Hyundai Mobis company, said that such systems cannot be called “autopilot” for the time being, and Tesla should think about changing the name of its system. “It seems that Tesla has no technical problems. This is the problem of creating unjustified expectations on the part of buyers who cannot be satisfied. ” “This is a marketing problem,” he added. According to Yusfera, Tesla should give a different name to its system, for example, Driver Assistant.



Musk believes that the Autopilot system is in perfect order: "... it gets better every day. It makes no sense to turn off the Autopilot Tesla, as some call it, as there is no point in turning off the aircraft autopilot."



Automakers are not the first time called driving assistance system "autopilot". Back in 1958, the company Chrysler called its new cruise control system " Auto-Pilot ".



A few days ago, Tesla received a letter from the owner of the electric car Model S, in which the motorist told about the effective work of the autopilot (Tesla Autopilot) in an emergency. Thanks to the automatic emergency braking system (Automatic Emergency Braking), it was possible to avoid a pedestrian hit. If it were not for this system, there would be an accident in which a pedestrian could have perished.