Conference

Road safety in an uncertain technological future

Ana Martins; Filipe Moura; Carlos Lima Azevedo2018

Key information

Published in

October 2018

Abstract

The invention, discovery, and adoption of new technologies in societies will again change the logic and hypotheses of today's thinking. Automation in road vehicles will begin by affecting the choice of transport mode, but will later impact urban planning, the "sharing economy" and ultimately society. Many researchers, from academia to the industry, are debating the pros and cons of SAE International Level 5 Autonomous Vehicles (AV) and one of the pros mentioned most frequently is the reduction of traffic accidents. This research analyses and discusses the arguments that relate road safety and autonomous vehicles based on an extensive literature. We compare the factors underlying mistakes and road unsafety, and the following dimensions are put into perspective: (1) the influence of human factors in driving; (2) the decision-making process and reliability of AV; (3) the uncertain interaction between human and autonomous drivers in the transition years. The main goal of this paper is to propose a framework of reference to explore comprehensively how the diffusion of AV might impact road safety. This framework is structured by a selected set of dimensions, which common denominator is the potential impact on the probability of an accident occurring. The analysis performed here is based on the collected literature. Leveraging on the proposed framework, we discuss the different findings from the literature, highlighting the needs for future research. This paper establishes a set of relationships that should be subject to short and long term scrutiny and defines lines of action for decision-makers. The hexagonal structure was adopted in order to, potentially, allowing for a clearer communication of the complexity of AV road safety issues to stakeholders and decision-makers.

Publication details

Location of the conference

Porto

Fields of Science and Technology (FOS)

civil-engineering - Civil engineering

Publication language (ISO code)

eng - English

Rights type:

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