A Pedestrian Was Killed by an Autonomous Vehicle. We Have to Learn to Be OK with it.

Photograph by Dan Gold.

By Darren Katz, Partner

A woman in Tempe Arizona was apparently killed by a self-driving Uber vehicle. While horribly tragic to the woman and her family, the truth is that over 6,000 pedestrians are killed every year by cars in the US. Moreover, there are over 40,000 Americans who are killed each year in motor vehicle collisions. The overwhelming majority of those deaths are caused by human error. That’s where autonomous vehicles can help the most. Some estimates put the potential reduction in deaths by over 90% if we fully automate our car fleet. 

But the key number is 90%, not 100%. So even if autonomous vehicles save tens of thousands of lives per year, they are unlikely to be perfect. As a society, we may have to learn to live with some deaths caused by technology in order to eliminate more deaths caused by humans. This is more of a psychological issue of control than a true utilitarian assessment of costs and benefits. In order to save lives, we will need to overcome that barrier.