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Autonomous Vehicle Safety

The future of mobility is rapidly changing.

Electric cars and autonomous vehicles are on the road today. These radical changes to transportation have major implications for vehicle and driver safety—as well as the regulations and standards that influence them.

Passive Vehicle Safety Features Take a Backseat as Active, Autonomous Features Take the Wheel

Drivers have long-since trusted passive automotive safety features, such as seat belts and air bags, which are only triggered if a collision occurs.

Vehicle technology has advanced, so active safety systems can prevent collisions before they happen.

Passive safety features now take a backseat to ADAS technologies such as electronic stability control, adaptive headlights and lane-keeping assist.

But this is only the beginning of advanced vehicle safety technology.

Autonomous vehicle technology developers and manufacturers are now focused on advanced safety systems including camera, radar and lidar sensors to head toward full vehicle autonomy.

Why Focusing on Vehicle Safety Features is Important for the Future of Transportation

The US Department of Transportation states, “In 2019, 30,696 people died in motor vehicle crashes, most of which occurred due to human error.”

There is widespread agreement that autonomous vehicle safety features can drastically reduce this number, but vehicles are not yet where they need to be to ensure proper action on collision prevention and mitigation 100% of the time.

Current autonomous vehicle safety statistics emphasize drivers lack trust in the technology due to underdeveloped safety standards for automated and autonomous vehicles.

The mobility and transportation industries are changing in tandem with the evolving relationship that society and individual drivers have with vehicles.

Drivers are becoming less involved in the driving process, while automated driving capabilities, like enhanced visibility and perception, allow for greater vehicle involvement in the driving process.

Technology “taking the wheel” from drivers results in the automotive industry’s significant influence over vehicle safety and regulations need to adapt accordingly. There is also an equal impact on insurance for electric and autonomous vehicles.

The Impact of Vehicle Safety Regulations & Technology on Autonomous Cars

In the 115th US Congress, the SELF DRIVE Act was proposed, which would’ve required certain safety assessment certifications and encouraged the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Alongside that bill was the AV START Act, which was proposed in order to improve transportation safety through supporting the development of highly automated vehicle safety technologies.

Neither bill was enacted.

There have been further efforts by organizations such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to improve automotive vehicle (AV) safety. However, progress on the testing and deployment of autonomous safety features for regulations simply is not keeping up with the advancements of these technologies.

This is why companies, like Innoviz Technologies, have taken matters into their own hands to push safety in the AV industry forward.

Innoviz is a part of the Lidar Coalition, with the goal to create lidar standards to enhance vehicle safety in ADAS and AV systems.

Lidar Technology for Autonomous Car Safety

Current technologies designed for automated vehicles to operate more precisely, such as camera and radar systems, are improving vehicle safety overall. However, they still lack important qualities needed for drivers to be able to relax behind the wheel.

The most important necessities of ADAS and AV systems is to function more safely and reliably than their human-driven counterparts, and regardless of weather or light conditions.

This is where many camera systems fall short.

They operate similarly to the human eye and can be easily disrupted by inclement weather such as heavy rain or poor light conditions at night.

Camera and radar are also insufficient when it comes to detecting small objects on the road from far away. This is important in highway scenarios and less-populated areas where cars are driving fast and need to identify dangers in the road in advance.

Tesla at Yosemite and LiDAR comparison for long-range detection

Innoviz’s LiDAR technology and perception software provide automakers with the layer of advanced safety features and certainty they need to ensure all objects in a driving environment are perceived and accurately identified for automated driving systems. Drivers can safely transition to passengers with features such as:

Ultimately, all major automakers are looking for safe automated driving solutions that combine a few different sensor types and provide superior perception to the human eye. The goal of sensor fusion is to create a complete picture of a driving scenario based on independent, uncorrelated datasets.

LiDAR technology is critical for redundancy and functional safety because it performs when camera, radar and humans fail. LiDAR is a must for the AV future, and Innoviz’s LiDAR is the benchmark for safety in automotive.

Innoviz Prioritizes Pedestrian Safety in Consumer Vehicles and Beyond

Innoviz’s goal to lead the world to safety centers around consumer vehicles, and the key role that LiDAR plays in enhancing AV systems and increasing pedestrian safety at night. Beyond automotive, which is the hardest industry to break into, Innoviz’s LiDAR technology also suits a range of industry use cases and applications. These include:

Innoviz technology helps streamline tasks and workflows in each of these industries by integrating superior automation and sensor software to get the job done in the safest, most efficient way possible.