A self-driving Uber car in Arizona kills a pedestrian—what does this mean for the future of autonomous vehicles?
Hi everyone, welcome to Plain English, the podcast that goes at just the right speed for English learners. I’m Jeff and today is Thursday, March 29, 2018. On today’s episode, we’ll talk about the tragic accident in which a pedestrian was killed by a self-driving car. It’s the first time a person’s death has been attributed to an autonomous vehicle, and the accident might have consequences for companies like Uber, who hope to operate fleets of self-driving cars. In the second half of the program, we’ll talk about the English phrase “turning point.”
Today’s episode is number 33, so you can find the transcript online at PlainEnglish.com/33. If you read the transcript, you’ll see instant translations of key words and phrases from English to Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and French. Check it out, PlainEnglish.com/33.
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All right… ready to get going?
Pedestrian dies after crash with self-driving car
A self-driving car operated by Uber struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona last week, in one of the most serious setbacks to date for the developing industry of autonomous vehicles. A 49-year-old woman was walking her bike across the street outside a crosswalk when she was hit by the vehicle. She later died from her injuries and became the first person to be killed by a self-driving car.
Uber immediately pulled all its autonomous vehicles from the four cities in which it had been operating: San Francisco, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Tempe, Arizona. Its Volvo sport-utility vehicle had been traveling at 40 miles per hour at the time of the crash; the speed limit on that road was 35 miles per hour, so the car wasn’t going unusually fast. The car was under the control of Uber’s software, but also had a human operator. The operator’s job was to take control of the car where necessary, such as in case of an emergency or if the software appeared to fail. In the days after the crash, news reports revealed that the human operator had not been watching the road at the time of the accident. What’s more, the operator had a criminal record including a history of traffic accidents in the past. So even if this particular accident wasn’t Uber’s fault, it did reveal some serious lapses in judgment surrounding its screening process for the human operators.
Self-driving cars use cameras, lasers, and radar installed in the vehicle to get a 360-degree view of the conditions outside the car. They combine the information gathered from this equipment with detailed maps and complex software that tells them how to react in different situations. The good news is that a car can react much faster than a person can. The bad news is that the software is not yet good enough to recognize every possible situation, so, even if it can react quickly, it doesn’t always know how, or whether it should do anything at all.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that last week’s accident was not the first time a self-driving car was involved in an accident. In fact, last year, a self-driving Uber was involved in a crash in an intersection, but an investigation ruled that Uber’s technology wasn’t at fault. And in 2016, a man driving a Tesla using some limited self-driving features died after his car hit a truck.
Still, last week’s crash might be a turning point for the industry. The pedestrian was an innocent bystander—she wasn’t operating or riding in a self-driving car; she was just crossing the street. And while it’s true she wasn’t in a crosswalk, it’s also true that a lot of us cross outside a crosswalk and we expect a certain level of awareness from the drivers around us.
For that reason, consumer advocates and some lawmakers in the United States think that the industry of self-driving cars needs to slow down and focus on safety before logging more miles on the road. Waymo, which is owned by Google, plans to launch a fleet of taxis in Arizona next year without human operators. Why should they be allowed to do that on public roads, some people wonder, if self-driving technology is not yet proven to be safe?
The other viewpoint, however, is that self-driving cars need time on the roads in order to test and perfect their technology. Without actual time on real roadways in real situations, the technology won’t be able to realize its full potential. And speaking of potential, self-driving vehicles could, once they’re more advanced, have the potential to save a lot of lives.
In the United States alone, 37,000 people die each year in traffic accidents—that’s about 100 people a day—and 94% of car crashes involve human error. Think about the net improvement to public safety if even just a fraction of those crashes were avoided. The problem is, how can the autonomous vehicle industry get to that point without putting people in danger in the meantime?
That’s a problem that the US federal government and a variety of state governments are having to confront now, especially in light of last week’s accident. The industry wants a consistent set of government regulations sooner rather than later, so they can design their technology to comply with the rules. That is, after all, the situation with conventional cars. US lawmakers now have to balance two competing priorities: protecting public safety and allowing the autonomous vehicle industry to develop. If it doesn’t have the space and legal protection to develop here, the companies argue, self-driving cars will go to other countries first.
Before we get to today’s phrase, I want to say a quick hello to Melody from Taiwan. Melody is a recent graduate and likes literature, especially suspense and fantasy novels. I love literature too—I’m always reading at least one book at a time. The book I’m reading right now is Artemis by Andy Weir. JR, the producer of Plain English, gave it to me. It’s a fantasy novel about a colony on the moon. So, if you’re like Melody and you like fantasy novels, check this one out; it’s good.
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