A driverless tragedy

无人驾驶的悲剧

Those new rules will now come under intense scrutiny, as will legislation, currently in the works in Washington, DC, to introduce federal safety standards for AV testing. This proposes exempting Avs from some existing safety standards, and would prevent states from introducing their own rules for AVs. The aim is to spur innovation by simplifying the regulatory environment. But in the wake of the accident in Tempe, road-safety advocates have called for the rules around AVs to be tightened, not loosened. Boston has asked nuTonomy, an AV firm, to suspend testing. Toyota said it would have a voluntary pause in the testing of AVs on American roads. The firm said it was concerned about the emotional effect of the Tempe accident on its safety drivers.

这些新的管理办法将被严格审查，正如目前在华盛顿起草准备为全联邦的自动驾驶测试提供安全准则的法案一样。这些管理办法为自动驾驶技术在某些安全标准方面提供豁免，并且阻止各州出台各自的自动驾驶管理办法。目的在于通过简化政策管理环境来促进创新。但是在坦佩发生的这期事故之后，致力于道路安全的人士呼吁缩紧对于自动驾驶的管理，而不是放宽。波士顿政府已经通知一家名为 nuTonomy 的自动驾驶公司暂停测试。Toyota 公司表示其自愿暂定在美国道路上进行自动驾驶试验。公司表示其关心在坦佩事故发生后对安全驾驶员所产生的精神影响。

Proponents of AVs often cite the safety benefits of vehicles that can drive themselves, noting that 94% of accidents are caused by human error. General Motors, America’s biggest carmaker, has set a goal of “zero crashes”. But developing the technology means testing it on public roads, where accidents involving AVs and other road users are inevitable. AVs will never eliminate road deaths, and expecting them to do so is to hold them to an impossible standard. A more realistic goal, suggests Amnon Shashua of Mobileye, a maker of AV technology, is to reduce the number of road deaths a thousand fold. But in a paper published last year, he warned of the danger of a “winter of autonomous driving”, suggesting that because of regulatory uncertainty, fatal accidents involving fully autonomous vehicles could plunge the industry into legal limbo, or kill it altogether.

自动驾驶的拥趸常常指出自动驾驶技术的安全性，94% 的事故是由于人类的错误所引起的。美国最大的汽车制造商通用汽车设置了一个“零事故”的目标。但是发展这些技术意味着在公共道路上进行测试，这就使得自动驾驶汽车和其他道路使用者之间的事故变得不可避免。自动驾驶技术不会消灭道路死亡，期望达到这样的目的无异于白日做梦。正如 Mobileye 的 Amnon Shashua 所指出的，更加实际的目标在于千倍地降低道路死亡事故的发生。但是在去年他发表的论文中，他警示存在“自动驾驶的冬天”的风险，由于政府监管的不确定性，自动驾驶车辆涉及的致命事故将导致整个产业处于不确定状态甚至导致其消亡。

The extent to which Ms Herzberg’s death will change attitudes towards AVs, or influence the regulation of the industry, depends to a large extent on the findings of the various investigations. It is important to avoid unnecessary risks when developing and implementing what promises to be a life-saving technology. But the sad truth is that there are bound to be fatal accidents on the road to a driverless world.

Herzberg 女士的死亡所带来的影响范围是会改变对于自动驾驶技术的态度还是影响对于这个产业的监管，取决于这次调查的范围。在发展和实施这类致力于挽救生命的技术时需要去重视避免那些不必要的风险。但悲哀的事实在于在通往无人驾驶的世界过程中一定会发生致命的事故。