Comparing Autonomous and Manually Driven Vehicle Safety Performance

This comparison is based on a calculation of crash probabilities (i.e., risk) for manually operated vehicle fleets. These probabilities are compared to crash probabilities for autonomous vehicle fleets.

An autonomous vehicle fleet is safer than a manually operated vehicle fleet if the crash probability of the former is less than the latter.

Fleet size samples of vehicles are required to determine whether there is any statistically significant difference in safety performance between AVs and manually operated vehicles.

This approach can start soon after commencement of autonomous vehicle production for Property Damage Only (PDO) crashes.

These results will be important for Federal and state regulatory policy officials, insurance companies, law firms, trucking organizations and the general public. Please contact me for a copy of my paper on this subject (jeff@jheversonconsulting.com).

Pictured: Examples of human-machine display modalities used by Dr. Everson for a collision warning system regarding inner city transit buses. Project awarded by the Federal Transit Administration and resulted in a Small Business Innovation Research Tibbett’s award to Dr. Everson.

About Dr. Everson

Prior to forming this autonomous vehicle consultant practice, Dr. Jeffrey Everson was director of business development for QinetiQ North America’s Technology Solutions Group (previously Foster-Miller, Inc.).

Dr. Everson has been the principal investigator for collision warning systems for automobiles and inner-city transit buses. These programs were awarded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). For his work on developing a collision warning system for inner-city transit buses, Everson was the first U.S. Department of Transportation contractor to win an SBIR Tibbetts Award.

Previously Dr. Everson held senior scientist positions at Battelle Memorial Institute, The Analytic Sciences Corporation (TASC), Honeywell Electro Optics Systems Division, and Itek Optical Systems Division.

He holds a PhD in physics from Boston College and a MS/BS in physics from Northeastern University.

Contact

For more information about how JHEverson Consulting can help your company with autonomous vehicles, please contact Jeff Everson.

JHEverson Consulting is based in the Boston area but consults for clients throughout North America.