Mobility
3 lessons for crafting a future with safer, more efficient self-driving cars
Maximizing the promise of self-driving cars will require special approaches and collaborations with technologists and regulators.
Safe Drive Initiative
The Challenge
There is growing consensus that total miles driven is not a sufficient metric for the safety of autonomous vehicles. Nor is disengagement reporting a good indicator of quality or readiness of the technology. Moreover, there is no good, uniform, readily reported data about AVs testing on public roads today – and that which is reported varies considerably from company to company
The industry and policymakers must come together to address questions of safety around these testing activities, to develop governance and policy solutions which enable safe trials, development and deployment of automated vehicles.
The Opportunity
In the interests of safety, we want the industry to lead the development of metrics and governance solutions for autonomous vehicles that regulators around the globe can use. With the support of our Automotive and Autonomous Mobility community, the Forum has created a proposed framework for AV governance centered around a scenario-based safety assurance program.
By taking this approach, regulators and policymakers have the opportunity to develop performance-based regulations for AVs which are solution agnostic, across various use cases and technologies - by prioritizing safe outcomes and focusing on the behaviour of the AV in the context of its environment.
Impact
- Proposes a performance-based approach to AV safety policy
- Improved safety of AV/MaaS testing and operations
- Initiated a cross-industry dialogue around safety to increase public trust
- Creation of a global framework for sharing critical safety data for AVs
Next Phase
Following the publication of this Framework, the Forum is considering creating further guidance for policymakers on facets of AV safety such as teleoperations, minimum risk maneuvers and cyber resiliency.
Partners
McKinsey & Company
Further reading