Perhaps the single most touted benefit of fully autonomous vehicles is improved public safety. Tennessee residents are told that this improved safety should come to them in the form of fewer accidents. Some may wonder if this is possible. Others wonder if it could ever be possible to eliminate all car accidents.
As explained by Scientific American, a self-driving vehicle’s ability to avoid or prevent an accident from happening relies on two basic things. One of these is effective technology that can accurately detect potential hazards. With this information, the vehicle may then adjust accordingly to avert a crash from taking place. The other is the ability to proactively consider the actions of another vehicle whether autonomous or human-driven and then respond appropriately.
The fact of the matter is that there remain challenges in both of these areas. Environmental factors such as fog or light may prevent a self-driving car’s sensors from operating properly or from reading a situation accurately. Additionally, it seems a daunting task to think that a software program can be created for a self-driving car which covers all possible actions that a human driver may take. If a particular action is not included in the software, the autonomous vehicle may not be able to take corrective action and avoid a crash. These factors have contributed to multiple wrecks including autonomous vehicles already.
This article is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give Tennessee residents more information about the nature of the risks they face on the road even with improving technology.