Consumer Watchdog: Robot Cars a Safety, Privacy Concern

“Google’s driverless cars have been involved in crashes at about twice the rate reported by American drivers,” said Consumer Watchdog in a news release Tuesday. “Google says its cars have driven 1.7 million miles and been involved in 11 accidents, or 0.65 accidents per 100,000 miles driven,” the release said. “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 0.3 property damage accidents per 100,000 miles driven in 2013,” it said. Consumer Watchdog has asked Google to make public its driverless car crash reports filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (see 1505110040) and on Monday, “Google acknowledged” there have been 11 cases, “but still refused to release the details publicly,” Consumer Watchdog said. “Driverless car technology is evolving and there are many situations Google’s robot cars cannot deal with,” said Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson. For example, rain and snow interfere with the vehicle’s sensors, robot cars “can’t interact reliably with hand signals given by the human driver of another vehicle or a policeman using only hand signals to direct traffic," the group said. Sunshine also can affect a driverless car’s ability to determine a traffic light’s color, and changing road conditions such as a pothole or an open manhole would largely go undetected, the group said. “If a traffic light were installed overnight as in the case of a road construction site, the car’s driverless navigation system would not expect it,” Consumer Watchdog said. “Google’s robot cars rely on detailed sensor mapping of routes before the robot car hits the road,” the group said. “If a Google driverless car tried a route that had not been specially mapped, probably even a large parking lot, it wouldn’t know what to do.” In a video released Monday, Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said there are “too many variables on the actual roads,” and if something isn’t on a map “the robot car might not see it.” In addition to safety concerns, Consumer Watchdog is concerned the vehicles will “collect massive amounts of data about where we go, what we do, and the people around us, yet no rules prevent Google or other corporations from using that information for purposes other than driving the car.” California's DMV is drafting regulations on public use of driverless cars and Consumer Watchdog is asking safety and privacy standards be implemented.