Turn around don't drown video

Managing risk requires understanding the risk; the National Weather Service is doing its part with this video about the risk of driving across a flooded road: 

Is a Self-Driving Car Safe?

Matt McFarland's article about the safety of robots, drones, and self-driving cars highlights the need for testing of all types: software tests, hardware tests, simulations, and operations on test tracks and real roads.

As the article mentions, the big question: how can one know if the robotic system is safe?

Safety must be relative to an acceptable risk threshold, and setting that threshold will be an important conversation.  Testing will have to show that the likelihood of an accident is sufficiently low and that the damage, if an accident occurs, is acceptably low.

In their draft requirements, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suggested that a third-party testing organization should verify that the vehicle is safe.




Links:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/12/18/the-billion-dollar-robot-question-how-can-we-make-sure-theyre-safe/

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/newsrel/newsrel15/2015_63