Deborah Hersman, Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, wants Google’s autonomous vehicles to be equipped with mandatory data recorders.
Google, which has been testing its own fleet of self-driving cars for quite some time now, is essentially at the forefront of the technology. But Hersman, chairman of the NTSB, believes autonomous vehicles need to prove themselves to be safe. The data recorders mandate is being requested so that when an accident does occur with one of Google’s autonomous vehicles, data is able to be gathered in order to understand what happened.
During her time as chairman, Hersman has seen the benefits of collecting more data and believes that it’s necessary to aid investigators in determining what went wrong seconds prior to an accident.
Currently, Google has expressed that its autonomous vehicles log performance data including speed, location and obstacles detected by the vehicle’s sensors. A recent report said 96 percent of passenger cars and light-duty vehicles from the 2013 model year come equipped with electronic data recorders according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Last year, NHTSA also proposed that all new vehicles have mandatory black boxes installed in order to collect driver’s speed, braking, seat belt usage and air bag data.
At the end of the day however, vehicle owners are concerned that the government could access the data while others are more worried that self-driving cars can pick up random information while on the road.
[Source: Huffington Post]
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