Self-driving cars may be a great idea, but watch out

DETROIT -- Self-driving cars will make our roadways much safer, but there will be unintended consequences that will need a consistent national legal and regulatory framework, according to experts who spoke at the opening of a major engineering conference Wednesday.

Currently, about 1.2 million people die each year in traffic accidents worldwide and more than 90% are caused by driver error, said Steffen Linkenbach, auto supplier Continental's North American director of systems and technology. The software and algorithms already being created to guide early self-driving prototypes will sharply reduce, if not eliminate those mistakes

He spoke on a panel moderated at the SAE World Congress with a wide-ranging discussion of the current status and likely future of automated transportation.

"Am I concerned that something could go wrong with an automated car? Yes. But I'm terrified by what happens with all these human drivers," said Bryant Walker Smith, professor of law and engineering at the University of South Carolina.

Pat Bassett, Denso's vice president for North American research and engineering, outlined the five levels of automated driving, the first two of which cover features such as anti-lock brakes, adaptive cruise control or lane-departure assist that are becoming common in human-driving vehicles. Bassett said Denso's market-ready technology is now at Level 2.

Would they eventually lead to a drop in new car sales?

"We'll need a lot of cars to move the miles people want to travel," Burns said. "The car will be used up much faster. A shared car would have 80,000 miles a year versus your car that may have 12,000."

Walker Smith cautioned that regulations and laws could delay implementation of self-driving cars and there will be unforeseen problems.

"Things will go wrong. So manufacturers should have a break-the-glass plan ready when their first automated vehicle is in an accident," he said. "Given that the status quo of distracted behavior, or even the failure to fasten seatbelts, is unacceptable, the change is coming."