Safe Autonomy

I really enjoyed the discussion with  Michele Kyrouz  on the Smarter Cars podcast. Thanks so much for inviting me on as a guest! https://anchor.fm/smarter-cars    // March 15, 2018 episode

Developers should create a transparent safety argument based on testing, simulation, and good engineering practices. The race to deploy self-driving cars is in full swing, with fleets being deployed on public roads in increasing numbers. While some vehicles require driver supervision, other fleets are being deployed which don’t even have driver controls at all. The big question is: will these vehicles be safe enough? Carnegie Mellon NavLab 11 / 2001 / https://goo.gl/itksbK Now that self-driving car technology is maturing, there is increasing recognition of the fact that demonstrating adequate levels of safety with on-road testing is impractical. Too many billions of miles are needed for a credible statistical safety argument, and it simply costs too much and takes too long to do that. Other safety critical application areas already have a solution to this problem in the form of internationally accepted safety standards (e.g., aircraft, trains, and even home appliances). While