“Dear Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Cars on US Roadways Should be Safer.”
The recent accident saddens my heart and there are no words to comprehend the death on the roadway of beloved Congresswoman, Jackie Walorski, and two young assistants, Zachary Potts and Emma Thompson, 27 and 28 years old along with Edith Schmucker, 57. The accident as explained in the news was a head-on collision, with Jackie’s car drifting over the divide, into oncoming traffic. Sadly, this type of accident is not uncommon.
We know that two-way roadway which is dangerous but common, with cars moving barely four feet from each other in opposite directions. I recall a car of teens who lost their lives like this, friends of my young daughters, in Palo Alto,1985.
42,915 lives were lost on the highway in the US in 2021, the highest number of fatalities in 17 years. 3,170 people die every day in the US alone. 1.3 million people die in accidents worldwide. Young drivers are the most at risk, with distraction identified as the major cause. Most of us know of or have personally lost someone we love. Why aren’t cars safer? Having spent eight years studying the problem, I’m convinced that cars can be safer and do better with government support and the sensor industry steps up.
I founded the World Safety Summit for Autonomous Vehicles in 2017 with the belief that experts and leaders should come together to promote safety on the roadway. Christopher Hart, former Director of the FAA advised this was the pathway the airlines took in the 1970s to make flying safer. The World Safety Summit was a forum and “meeting of the minds,” to discuss among 400 participants, the future of car and robotic safety. Sensor makers, car companies, transportation experts, and government leaders from NTSA, NSA, DOT, SAE, and MADD members came together to talk, from around the world with a common interest in how to create more roadway safety.
My goal was to brainstorm solutions and help educate the government and public about automated and autonomous technology. It was a huge success but applying the knowledge for a safer world, hasn’t been realized.
In 2017, the buzzwords and hope for the future of roadways were “Autonomy” and “Driverless Cars,” which makes sense because human drivers make mistakes, become fatigued, and are distracted. There was hope that autonomous vehicles would provide a public safety solution. Waymo, Tesla, Ford Motors, and others declared plans to make the roads safer with autonomy. We thought the future was Autonomous.
Since then, however, the entrepreneurs and scientists involved discovered that safe autonomous driving required a massive amount of more work than anticipated and would take much longer. But there is good news! While scientists like David Hall worked on autonomous technology, they developed parts of an autonomous system, modules of safety features, now called ADAS, or (Automated Driving Assistant Systems,) which can fairly quickly be deployed. These systems don’t replace a human driver, but they can perform well and effectively function as a safety backup.
Current ADAS featured advertisements include Automatic Parking, Autonomous Valet Parking, Backup Collision Avoidance, and Adaptive Cruise Control. These minimal features do not make a car “autonomous,” or much safer.
Cars in the future should be equipped with more powerful ADAS backup including Automatic Emergency Braking, (AEB) Lane Keeping, (LK), and Pedestrian and Bicycle Braking, (PAEB.) These more advanced systems can assist the car on the road if the driver is fatigued or distracted - keep it in its lane, and automatically steer and adjust to avoid danger. (LK would have potentially prevented the recent tragic, head-on accident.) I believe that powerful ADAS should be developed, standardized, regulated, and mandated and it would save hundreds of thousands of lives. The program could start modest and grow.
Cars CAN do better to keep us and our families safer. My dream is to see advanced ADAS systems working with powerful accuracy, to be deployed in vehicles worldwide.
After the Summit, I founded the first National Lidar Coalition, an America First organization to help educate the government and public about the capabilities of lidar for “seeing” the road in 3D. However, I am not partial to lidar, because cameras, radar, or other sensors may be part of the mix. I leave it to the genius of David Hall, engineers, and scientists.
David Hall’s invention of the lidar could be one part of a system to greatly benefit society. In the back of my mind are images of the young girls who had lost their lives in the 1985 car accident and their grieving mothers. I am a champion for roadway safety. I can picture how to do it.
There exists the obstacle (that can be overcome) that car companies don’t want any added cost. The solution is for the government to work toward a reasonable mandate of car safety. Seatbelts, then airbags, and other safety features have been mandated for the good of the public. With technology mature enough to provide AEB, LKA, and PAEB, with basic life-saving features, it’s time for advanced safety. The project needs support from the government, like the current support given for the advancement of electric cars! Please call for a task force of 10 experts including David Hall, inventor of lidar technology, plus leaders from NHTSA, NSA, SAE, and more, to brainstorm the opportunity and how to go about the process. Car companies can’t do it on their own and technologists need support and encouragement.
Like the project to advance electric vehicles, the government should champion this equally important, public safety project.
This action could be a memorial to Jackie, Emma, Edith, and Zachary.
Marta Hall
