Together, three recent events mark a crucial turning point in the development of autonomous cars: They are both safer and more advanced than ever before.
A Miami police officer looks at a driver’s license he requested from a motorist at a DUI checkpoint.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
We have a reliable and easy-to-use test to measure blood alcohol concentration. But right now we don’t have a fast, reliable test to gauge whether someone is too doped up to drive.
Not enough time to cross.
Shou/www.shutterstock.com
Driverless cars are the future, right? Wait. While things would be simple if our roads were 100% driverless, getting there is anything but. And planning for roads shared by robots and humans is hard.
Most road-safety initiatives prioritise a rapid clearing of the road so cars can pass.
Thales/flickr
In contrast to increases in vehicle safety over the decades, we have seen little new technology to ensure the safety of pedestrians – and current innovations are still based on a car-centric approach.
Don’t believe the stereotype - not all elderly drivers are bad drivers.
Little Moon/Shutterstock
Two Tesla cars running on autopilot have crashed this year, and one driver was killed. It raises the question of whether the company’s autonomous driving system is safe for our roads.
Using incentives drawn from game play, the peak-hour crush can be reduced, or avoided altogether.
Stilgherrian/flickr
Using elements of game play, we can create incentives for people to change how and when they make various transport choices in ways that enable the whole system to work better.
Owner operator truckers argue that the pay order from the Road Safety Renumeration Tribunal is pricing them out of the market.
Dan Peled/AAP
If the federal government abolishes the Road Safety Renumeration Tribunal, a minimum pay to improve the safety of truckers is less likely to ever be addressed.
Was Anthony Albanese right about truck driver pay and safety?
AAP Image/Joel Carrett
Was Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese, right to say that evidence shows better pay for truck drivers will improve safety?
A zero-tolerance alcohol approach is unlikely to influence irresponsible behaviour.
Lucas Coch/AAP
Can software really be considered the “driver” of an autonomous vehicle? This is one question that needs to be resolved before driveless cars can hit the roads.
Cyclists have every right to be on the road - not that you’d know it from the abuse they get.
ymgerman/Shutterstock.com
Cycling has flatlined in Australia since 2011, with many people citing safety concerns as the main reason not to ride. Wider recognition of cyclists’ right to be on the roads would help to boost the numbers.
Weapons and flames: this ‘dream car’ design by teenagers doesn’t include any safety features.
Bridie Scott-Parker
Teenagers are more interested in gadgets and flashy desig in their first car than they are about safety features. So how do we make them think safety is important?
Driverless cars could soon be cruising Australian roads if South Australia gives the go-ahead to reforms to its road legislation. The technology promises to increase safety on our roads, but what happens…
Faulty ignition switches like this one were at the core of the troubles at GM, which led to record recalls last year.
Reuters
The US’s top auto safety agency last week fined Japanese car company Honda Motor a record US$70 million for failing to report hundreds of fatal accidents and injuries over the last 11 years. The unfiled…
Economic modelling suggests raising fuel taxes could get cars off the road - and therefore save lives.
Khongkit Wiriyachan/Shutterstock
Road safety is a seriously important public policy issue. Around 1.3 million people die in road crashes around the world each year. Among teenagers and young adults, road crashes are the number-one cause…