American NPO calls for prohibition on robot car testing

American not-for-profit organisation, Consumer Watchdog has called for a national moratorium on robot car testing on public highways in the US, after an Arizona woman was killed by a an autonomous vehicle.

"There should be a national moratorium on all robot car testing on public roads until the complete details of this tragedy are made public and are analysed by outside experts so we understand what went so terribly wrong. Arizona has been the wild west of robot car testing with virtually no regulations in place.  That's why Uber and Waymo test there. When there's no sheriff in town, people get killed," said John M Simpson, privacy and technology project director, Consumer Watchdog.

The vehicle which was involved in the fatal incident was in autonomous self-driving mode at the time of the collision and had a human supposedly ready to take control of the wheel in the car, according to the police.

The NPO has said the tragedy underscores the difficulty robot cars have in interacting with pedestrians and cyclists, as well as human driven vehicles, such shortcomings in the autonomous technology were made clear in the ‘disengagement reports’ that companies are required to file when they are permitted to test in California. The reports, which document when a test driver had to intervene, are filed annually with the Department of Motor Vehicles' website, but no such disclosures are required in Arizona.

Consumer Watchdog states that although this is the first known death caused by a autonomous vehicle on public road, this tragedy is unsurprising given the information revealed in the disengagement reports about the ‘autonomous’ capabilities of these vehicles.

It has further stated that earlier this year twenty companies released ‘disengagement reports’, revealed that the vehicles could not go more than 5,596 miles (9,000km) in the best-case scenario without a human test driver taking over the wheel.

In most cases, the vehicles cannot travel more than a few hundred miles without needing human intervention, Consumer Watchdog has noted. Despite the information revealed in these reports, the California DMV gave autonomous vehicles approval to commence operations on the road without a human driver ready to take control next month.

"If robot cars are already killing people even with the presence of a human driver in the car, how lethal are these technologies going to be next month when they will roam public roads without a human onboard ready to take control?" asked Sahiba Sindhu, a consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog.

The body has also called for making all the data from the Arizona fatal crash to be made public so it can be analysed by outside experts. The group said Uber has demonstrated a concern about rushing robot vehicles on to the road and without a concern about safety.

According to Consumer Watchdog, an email exchange between the former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and then lead robot car developer Anthony Levandowski, has revealed in the recent Waymo-Uber lawsuit, it is clear the corporation lacks concern for public safety.

"I just see this as a race and we need to win, second place is first loser," read one text from Levandowski in March, 2016. "We do need to think through the strategy to take all the shortcuts we can find," said another from the engineer on the same day.

"Uber simply cannot be trusted to use public roads as private laboratories without meaningful safety standards and regulations," concluded John Simpson.

Also read: Autonomous car kills pedestrian in America