Allowing Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Sooner Will Save More Lives

Autonomous vehicles should only have to be “moderately better” than human drivers before being widely used in the United States, an approach that could save thousands of lives annually even before the technology is perfected, according to a new report from RAND Corporation. Allowing wide use of autonomous vehicles when they are just 10% better (Improve10) than current American drivers could prevent thousands of road fatalities over the next 15 years and possibly hundreds of thousands of fatalities over 30 years, researchers found, compared to waiting until they are 75% (Improve75) to 90% (Improve90) better.