Companies manufacturing driverless cars in the US have been issued a serious warning
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the United States has issued a serious warning to companies developing self-driving cars, as reported by Zamin.uz.
Experts from the agency have identified concerning situations related to the behavior of autonomous vehicles in emergency scenarios. According to reports, intelligent systems often yield to police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel.
Such malfunctions and errors could potentially endanger human lives, a point specifically emphasized. Jonathan Morrison, head of the agency, stated in an official letter to industry representatives that dangerous patterns are being observed in the behavior of self-driving vehicles.
According to conducted analyses, autonomous vehicles frequently fail to respond adequately to warning signs at incident sites, including flashing lights, traffic cones, and signal flares. Even obvious hazard indicators such as smoke and fire on the road are not always correctly assessed by the system.
The barriers being developed for emergency services are posing serious challenges to specialists. Self-driving cars sometimes enter areas where active rescue operations are underway without permission and yield to the movement of special equipment.
In Morrison's view, the inability to detect such situations reflects a functional inadequacy of the system. This issue could become one of the major obstacles on the path to widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles.
Currently, the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. is separately investigating a number of unpleasant incidents involving vehicles belonging to the Waymo company. In particular, in the state of Texas, cases have been recorded where self-driving vehicles passed stopped school buses with flashing warning lights, violating traffic rules.
Additionally, there are reports from Dallas of an autonomous vehicle obstructing the path of a fire truck that was confused while approaching a building. Another incident occurred in Santa Monica, California.
According to inspection data, a self-driving car struck a nine-year-old girl in a school zone. The girl had stepped out from behind a stopped vehicle and ran into the road, but the autonomous system failed to detect the danger in time and take appropriate action.
Such situations indicate that this technology is still not fully perfected. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to hold meetings with all major manufacturers to address these issues.
The regulator's main requirements include clearly recognizing signals from emergency personnel, yielding unconditionally to special equipment, and reacting safely to any non-standard obstacles on the road. Additionally, increasing vigilance in residential areas and near schools has been placed on the agenda.
These measures are expected to elevate the safety of autonomous transport systems to a new level.
