With more than 40 companies racing to put automated vehicles (AVs) on the road, why does commercial availability seem always just over the horizon? Safety is among the most compelling arguments for AVs, and yet safety remains a major hurdle for their development. In 2017 in the United States, more than 37,000 people died from car (and light truck) crashes and 2.7 million people were injured; another 5,500 pedestrians were killed by cars. Many collisions involving conventional cars involve some element of driver error. AVs, the argument goes, will improve safety because they replace flawed humans with something better: an intelligent machine that doesn't get tired, drunk, or distracted; can make superior split-second decisions and communicate with other vehicles; and can see and anticipate hazards that human drivers cannot.
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