Better Streets Helping Make Safety Laws For Automated Vehicles Better
Source: Washington Post
Better Streets has urged the Australian Government’s National Transport Commission to put people first when they write their safety laws for automated vehicles. The discussion paper is here. The laws will govern completely autonomous self-driving vehicles as well as a range of driver assistance technologies.
At short notice Better Streets volunteers mobilised to meet with government bureaucrats and write a submission. This was important because most of the input has been from industry groups with little input from the broader community due to poor advertising and communication of the consultation opportunity.
Our submission urged the government to use the law as a reset for how safe operation of vehicles is understood nationally. We put forward clear principles for the government to adopt to underpin the laws:
Automated vehicles must prioritise safety of people over all other considerations
Safety of people must be prioritised according to their vulnerability, e.g. people walking and cycling ahead of people in vehicles
The injury rate caused by automated vehicles must decline according to a steep legislated trajectory
Fines must be imposed on automated vehicle corporations that mean that it is cheaper for them to invest in improving safety than risk fines due to crashes
Automated vehicles must be operated to minimise the need for vehicle related road space so more space can be allocated to walking and cycling
The corporation who designed the automated vehicle must remain responsible for it during its entire life
Automated vehicles must not operate in Australia until they pass rigorous safety testing specifically for our context
Automated vehicles must be operated to minimise carbon emissions
The submission included more information emphasising the first five that were quite different to the framework that was proposed by the government.
We will organise another meeting to discuss the themes of the submission further with the team working on the laws. Get in touch if you are interested in being involved.
Thanks to Gill King for organising the initial meeting with the government team and her analysis of the consultation draft.
