The growing popularity of cycling together with the rapid development of self-driving vehicles has raised the question whether the two are on a collision course. Google’s answer, laid out in its latest monthly report on its Self-Driving Car Project, is an emphatic no.
The company programs its autonomous vehicles to give cyclists a wide berth, the company said. “Our cars recognize cyclists as unique users of the road, and are taught to drive conservatively around them (it helps to have a number of avid cyclists on our engineering team!),” the report states.
The reports comes amid heightened concerns about the safety of self-driving technology, following the revelation last week that the driver of a Tesla Model S was killed in an accident when the car was in “autopilot” mode. Preliminary reports indicate the Tesla failed to brake when a tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of it; the May accident is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla and Google have been at the forefront of the development of self-driving vehicles, but major automakers, including GM, are also developing the technology. And nearly every automaker is incorporating autonomous functions into new vehicles. The dominant ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft are also partnering in efforts to develop self-driving vehicles.
Google insists that its autonomous vehicles can better sense cyclists than human drivers. “Because our cars can see 360 degrees, we’re more aware of cyclists on the road — even in the dark,” its latest report states.
And the company says the vehicles are learning how to recognize the various varieties of cycles: “Bikes can come in many shapes and sizes, so using machine learning we’ve trained our software to recognize many different types.”
Google has previously boasted of its vehicles’ ability to recognize cyclists’ hand signals, and demonstrated the technology in action in a video last year.
Google currently has more than 50 autonomous vehicles on public roads in Kirkland, Wash., Mountain View, Calif., Phoenix, Ariz. and Austin, Tex., cities where the company has been permitted to test the vehicles. The company says its vehicles have logged more than 1.7 million miles since the program began in 2009.
Some cycling advocates have been wary of the roll-out of self-driving technology and its ability to adapt to the unique behaviors of cyclists, including the quick evasive maneuvers they often must make due to the actions of other drivers. In Austin, one cyclist told of a Google vehicle apparently being confused when he was in a “trackstand” position, a standing stop.
And then there are the ethical dilemmas posed by real-world driving situations, such as whether a computer-operated vehicle should swerve and risk its passengers’ lives for the sake of avoiding cyclists or pedestrians.
It seems unlikely that Google’s engineers, no matter how much the refine the operating systems of their vehicles, will be able to resolve these questions.