Skip to main content

Governments must develop regulations to ensure AV safety, experts warn

Governments are “lagging behind” in developing regulations to ensure the safety of autonomous vehicles (AVs). This was among the main messages from a key session at this week’s Consumer Electronics Event 2019 event in Las Vegas, US. Speaking during ‘Mobility and Connectivity Perspectives from the C-suite’, Joe Vitale, global automotive leader at Deloitte, said the company’s yearly consumer study has shown that more people feel getting into an AV is unsafe, which is in part due to the deaths caused b
January 9, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Governments are “lagging behind” in developing regulations to ensure the safety of autonomous vehicles (AVs).

This was among the main messages from a key session at this week’s Consumer Electronics Event 2019 event in Las Vegas, US.

Speaking during ‘Mobility and Connectivity Perspectives from the C-suite’, Joe Vitale, global automotive leader at Deloitte, said the company’s yearly consumer study has shown that more people feel getting into an AV is unsafe, which is in part due to the deaths caused by the technology.

“The big question is going to be as more and more vehicles become tested under higher speeds we’re going to see more accidents and more deaths and how that affects consumers’ perception and the way regulators put standards in place,” Vitale added.

He predicted that the industry will achieve SAE (formerly the US Society of Automotive Engineers) Level 3 autonomy in the next two to five years and will reach Level 4 in the next decade or two.

Chris Penrose, AT&T president of IoT Solutions, stated there is an issue about whether it is possible to reduce accidents and fatalities around the world on the road with these technologies.

Sandy Shirai, US technology, media and telecommunications leader at Deloitte, said there are more advanced driver assistance systems being installed in new cars.

“You also have the potential to fit those technologies into legacy cars, and as you see the bending of the curve in automobile fatalities and injuries, then maybe the government and public perception will improve,” Shirai added.

Related Content

  • Passport roundtable examines London’s kerb space priorities
    March 19, 2019
    UK congestion is getting worse, in part due to the influx of deliveries coming into cities. At a roundtable discussion in London, software provider Passport examined new ways in which local authorities can work together to better manage the kerb. Ben Spencer listens in Competition for kerb space is one of the major conundrums of modern urban mobility. Some authorities are being creative about it, but good practice is not widespread. “There are individual pockets of good work going on with cities who a
  • ITS needs to talk the talk as well as walk the walk
    March 24, 2014
    The US automated enforcement market is in rude health as the number of systems and applications continues to grow and broaden. Jason Barnes reports. Blessed and cursed – arguably, in equal measure – with a constitution which stresses the right to self-expression and determination, the US has had a harder journey than most to the more widespread use of automated traffic enforcement systems. In some cases, opposition to the concept has been extreme – including the murder of a roadside civil enforcement offici
  • Motional and Lyft resume Vegas AV service 
    November 3, 2020
    Firms say extensive sanitation measures will keep passengers 'safe and healthy'
  • MEPs call for driver-assistance systems to made compulsory for new cars
    November 17, 2017
    Following over 25,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries on Europe’s roads each year, 90% of which are caused by human error, MEPs are calling for new cars to be equipped with lifesaving driver assistance systems in a draft resolution. Three-quarters of new cars are still not equipped with the systems due to the extra cost. In response, the resolution suggests only making features compulsory that are already available on the market such as automatic emergency braking systems with pedestrian and