Uber has suspended its driverless-car program in Tempe, Arizona, after one such robot-driven car flipped over onto its side in accident.
This may be prudent, considering how new driverless cars are to the world. But also, it highlights how much more sensitive the public — and especially policymakers — will be to accidents involving robot-driven cars compared to accidents involving only human drivers.
First, the details in this Tempe story:
1) It’s the first accident of an Uber self-driving car.
2) Nobody was injured.
3) Tempe police say the human driver was at fault.
How many miles did Uber self-driving cars drive before getting in this accident that wasn’t the robot’s fault? How does that compare to the average human driver, or the average human Uber driver?
To be sure, I’m skeptical of robot-driven cars for many reasons, and I don’t think we should rush ahead to fully integrate them. But any coverage or discussion of accidents they get in need to be put in the context of their relative safety to the alternative, which mostly means humans driving cars.
I’m a conservative, so I think it’s good to be extra skeptical of new things. But also, we need to realize that nothing will be perfect, and we should judge things against their alternatives, not against perfection.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s commentary editor, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
