A study by an automobile engineer at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, says Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have the potential to reduce roach accidents and their attendant fatalities.
The researcher, Dr Prakash Ranjitkar, an associate professor, therefore, suggested that self-driving cars could play a major role in advancing road safety and mobility of humans and goods.
Ranjitkar is an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the university’s Transport Research Centre.
Their study entitled `Could Driverless Cars be the Key to Safer Roads’ underscores potential of autonomous vehicles in also reducing automobile-related environmental pollution.
Ranjitkar and his team sourced data from AV trials in the U.S to examine what a similar rollout in New Zealand could look like.
He suggested that since the vast majority of serious crashes were due to human error, adding that taking the driver out of the equation could have significant safety benefits.
“Human error is a factor in 94 per cent of serious crashes.
“Driverless vehicles, especially shared ones like robo-taxis, can make our roads safer, ease traffic congestion, improve our transport systems and cut down on pollution,” he said.
During the study conducted it was found that autonomous vehicles were 85 per cent less likely to be involved in injury-causing crashes than human drivers.
However, the research cautioned that the vehicles were not immune to minor, low-speed incidents such as sudden stops at intersections.
Ranjitkar says these incidents were far less likely to cause injury.
He suggested that policy measures should be developed to prevent AVs from replacing private cars for long-distance travel.
According to him, instead they should complement public transport by filling the gaps buses and trains do not reach.
“This concept is known as a ‘first-mile/last-mile’ solution and will reduce people’s reliance on private cars, particularly in Auckland which is already quite a car-dependent city, and encourage the use of public transport.
“AVs can offer a flexible, affordable, equitable and scalable solution that bridges that gap, and when integrated with our urban mobility systems, it would provide on-demand convenience and improve the sustainability of our cities,” he said.
