Rand study shows it's hard to gauge self-driving car safety

Gauging the safety of self-driving vehicles has become increasingly vexing.Manufacturers often tout automated vehicles as technological marvels that will dramatically reduce the human toll of crashes. But that's a broad promise, and a new Rand Corp. study says a safety framework is needed as automakers prepare for commercial deployments."The meaning of safety in regard to AVs is surprisingly unclear -- no standard definition exists," says the nonprofit think tank's study issued last week. The study, "Measuring Automated Vehicle Safety", was sponsored by Uber.Rand's findings suggest common ground is needed to build trust among government officials and members of the public alike as an automated-driving age approaches. Further, the study is critical of the secretive nature of vehicle development.Even as companies such as Waymo tout the millions of miles driven in autonomous mode, Rand researchers say the number of vehicle miles traveled during industry testing is insufficient to provide meaningful data on the safety of self-driving operations.Rather than wait to deploy self-driving vehicles until statistics can prove they're safer than human-driven vehicles -- and risk missing out on their benefits in the interim -- Rand says industry leaders, academics and policymakers should develop leading indicators that are essentially measures correlated to positive safety outcomes instead of waiting for crashes to happen and counting them."We know there can be benefits with self-driving cars, and we don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good," said Marjory Blumenthal, project leader for the study. "The challenge is measuring." New barometers

Rand study shows it's hard to gauge self-driving car safety

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