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Change Is Coming! You Should Take the PE Exam Now.
November 8, 2018
Autonomous Vehicle Crashes - Oops! We’re Hitting Them
Autonomous vehicles may revolutionize the way we travel, interact with society, and accessibility (amongst a multitude of other possible impacts). Many experts agree that an autonomous driving world will provide safety benefits. However, many also speculate about the difficulty in the transition period (and the length of the transition period between mostly human drivers and mostly autonomous driving). A recent Wired article explored the limited available data thus far to figure out how crashes are occurring with autonomous vehicles. The answer - we (the human drivers) are rear-ending them. 57% of self-driving car crashes were rear-end type crashes in 2018 in California (followed by 29% sideswipe crashes). The future remains unknown in terms of how we will interact with this new technology and how quickly the market will become saturated, but both aspects will have long-term effects on highway safety. - Daniel Findley, DTC Civil Transportation Instructor
