Skip to content

Brought to you by

Dentons logo

Driverless Commute

A digest clocking the most important technical, legal and regulatory developments shaping the path to full autonomy

open menu close menu

Driverless Commute

  • Home
  • About Us
  • News on AVs
  • Global AV Index
  • Global Guide to AVs 2023
    • Executive summary
    • Australia
    • Canada
    • China
    • Germany
    • Hungary
    • Italy
    • Poland
    • South Korea
    • Turkey
    • United Kingdom
    • United States

Driverless Commute – March 23

By Eric Tanenblatt and James Richardson
March 23, 2018
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Driverless Commute
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via email Share on LinkedIn

Welcome again to The Driverless Commute, presented by the global law firm Dentons, a weekly digest clocking the most important technical, legal and regulatory developments shaping the path to autonomy.

1. Situational awareness

Footage released this week by the Tempe, AZ, police department shows a negligent contingency driver distracted in the critical moments before an Uber prototype operating in autonomous mode fatally struck a pedestrian in the dark hours of Sunday evening.

The facts:

  • A Volvo XC90 SUV was operating in autonomous mode on a Sunday evening when it fatally struck a 49-year-old crossing a street with her bicycle in Arizona.
  • The woman was not in a designated pedestrian crossing.
  • Only days prior, the state’s governor, Republican Doug Ducey, signed an executive order abandoning requirements for contingency drivers in experimental autonomous vehicles. He signed his first executive order aimed at luring driverless test programs to the state three years ago, saying the state had open arms and wide roads.
  • Despite this easing of rules, there was a safety fallback driver present in the car at the time of the collision.
  • Uber has halted its autonomous program pending investigation.

The incident, which represents in some ways an acute indictment of the state of vehicle automation, will cast a long shadow over the as-yet-largely unregulated driverless landscape.

And we warned you it would.

In January, we wrote in this space: “The evolutionary leap towards artificial intelligence is entering its most dangerous phase, hurtling into a marketing-induced bedlam in which society has assumed broad misconceptions about the computing powers of contemporary driverless cars. Now, it’s partly a function of aggressive branding campaigns—you could be forgiven for thinking a function branded as autopilot would, well, automatically pilot your craft—but mostly it’s borne of stupidity.”

Cortica, an AI firm, ran simulations from  the Arizona crash on its system and found the car’s various LiDAR arrays and sensors, which are impervious to darkness, should have detected the pedestrian 0.9 seconds before impact, about 50 feet shy of collision, leaving enough time for a computer to appropriately react.

Experts with whom we’ve consulted agree that that the car should have identified the pedestrian, and forensic crash probes by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will determine why it didn’t.

But don’t forget that the car was operating with the presence of a human safety driver for a reason. For this exact reason.

The way we see it:

  • The term “autonomous vehicle” is a bit of a misnomer, at least given the current state of the technology. Prototypes in operation across the United States fall short, in both real and perceived terms, of true autonomy. But the only way to shorten the delta between proto-autonomy (as it exists today) and full autonomy (as its been promised) is to continue real road tests.
  • Public surveys already indicate significant trepidation about the presence of autonomous vehicles on public roads, and the Tempe incident will only heighten that fear.
  • Car makers and technology firms must bear the burden of proof. Unless and until they meet that critical threshold, states should require the presence of qualified, engaged contingency drivers or teleoperation capacities.

2. Ripples

Search giant Baidu won its first permit this week from regulators to begin formal public testing of autonomous vehicles in China’s bustling capital city.

Beijing’s roads are a blur of flesh and metal—a place where pedestrians, cyclists and motorists fiercely jostle for space and speed—and will present an exceptional challenge for autonomous tech.

Already, the Tempe incident is stirring thought leaders around the world to ask whether the rapid pace of driverless experimentation has come at the expense of public safety. Like this, published today by the editorial board of the English-language South China Morning Post: “The death of a female pedestrian hit by a self-driving car … is a wake-up call that driverless technology may be getting ahead of itself.”

The fallout from the Arizona crash isn’t yet apparent, but the episode highlights the danger to the global autonomy sector in this delicate testing phase. Remember: The rules of the road still apply. Speeding too fast could irreversibly stall deployment.

3. Don’t be the last to know!

Imagine knowing every word of consequence, spoken (on radio, cable, and local affiliate news programs) or written (in print, in digital, and on social environments) on the subject of automotive autonomy. No more surprises, only opportunities.

Meet the Console, a best-in-industry intelligence service that marries advanced machine learning algorithms with human analysis to create comprehensive, real-time advisories on everything autonomy.

A service of Dentons’ 3D Global Affairs, which yokes traditional legal capabilities with government affairs, corporate competitive analysis, and strategic communications, the Console mines the public record to populate an easy-to-navigate knowledge platform.

TEST DRIVE IT FOR FREE: Email us for a free demonstration of the Console.

The Driverless Commute, a subscription-based service, is provided by Dentons’ global Autonomous Vehicles team. If you believe a colleague or associate would benefit from this service, please share this link so they may subscribe.

Click here to speak with our experts across the world to learn more about any of the items contained in this newsletter.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via email Share on LinkedIn
Subscribe and stay updated
Receive our latest blog posts by email.
Stay in Touch
Eric Tanenblatt

About Eric Tanenblatt

Eric Tanenblatt is the Global Chair of Public Policy and Regulation of Dentons, the world's largest law firm. He also leads the firm's US Public Policy Practice, leveraging his three decades of experience at the very highest levels of the federal and state governments.

All posts Full bio

James Richardson

About James Richardson

James Richardson is a strategic communications counselor with 15 years’ experience advising presidential candidates, Global Fortune 500 executives, national nonprofits, and sovereign governments on strategic communications and reputation management. He helps lead Dentons’ 3D Global Affairs practice.

All posts Full bio

RELATED POSTS

  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Driverless Commute

California Regulators Clear the Way for Commercial Autonomous Vehicle Deployment

By Eric Tanenblatt
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Driverless Commute

The Driverless Commute, presented by Dentons: Top 5 things to watch for in 2019; Japan might allow TV consumption in AVs; BMW unveils self-driving motorcycle

By Eric Tanenblatt and James Richardson
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • General

UPDATE: Autonomous Trucking Faces Preemptive Bill in California

By Chan Creswell and Walker Boothe

About Dentons

Redefining possibilities. Together, everywhere. For more information visit dentons.com

Grow, Protect, Operate, Finance. Dentons, the law firm of the future is here. Copyright 2023 Dentons. Dentons is a global legal practice providing client services worldwide through its member firms and affiliates. Please see dentons.com for Legal notices.

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Driverless Commute
  • General
  • Global Autonomous Vehicles Survey
  • UAVs
Dentons logo in black and white

© 2025 Dentons

  • Legal notices
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of use
  • Cookies on this site