Global law firm Perkins Coie LLP and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the world’s largest nonprofit organization devoted to advancing the unmanned systems and robotics community just published their findings on survey of more than 260 leaders from the automotive and technology industries, in addition to state and federal regulators.
You can access the survey report here, but Insider will give you the key findings as reported:
HALF OF THE respondents considered liability concerns the top obstacle to bringing AVs to market.
THE RESPONDENTS VIEWED concern over consumers’ perception of safety as the biggest impediment to the growth of driverless cars in the next five years.
CONVERSELY, THEY VIEWED reduced traffic accidents as the greatest benefit to consumers, ranking it first among 10 possible choices.
NO CLEAR MAJORITY of survey participants agreed on which regulatory authority should be responsible for oversight of liability issues. While regulators and technology executives foresaw state regulators taking this role, automotive executives expected federal regulators to take the lead in managing liability issues.
REGULATORS OVERWHELMINGLY—and unsurprisingly— viewed safety standards for experimental testing as crucial, with 81% saying such standards are at least somewhat necessary.
TWO-THIRDS OF REGULATOR respondents expected a patchwork of fragmented and sometimes conflicting rules to be harmonized at a federal level within five years.
RESPONDENTS SAW SAFETY and the price of investment as the principal obstacles to the growth of the AV industry; those in technology fields considered investment costs the most worrisome obstacle.
MORE THAN HALF of the respondents considered wireless connectivity among cars, parking meters, traffic lights and other smart infrastructure as the top data infrastructure requirement. They also said that urban and highway infrastructure need urgent attention to facilitate testing. Connectivity to towers and antennas ranked second, with data centers to manage and analyze large volumes of information collected from the vehicles also among the top choices.
TECH AND AUTO industry respondents considered 5G technology, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and advanced driverless assistance systems as the most attractive places in which to invest in the next five years.
Insiders Take – The technology is certainly moving ahead but the real question is how soon will it be before we are riding in autonomous cars? Two things Insider noticed in the report that might have impact on timing. The first is consumer perception. Acceptance of the technology may need a generational movement as has been true with most technology advances. The boomer generation may need to be off the roads before this happens. The second is who is going to regulate the industry including safety, training, licensing and liability? Will most likely be governmental, but determining who and how will certainly take some time.
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