Silicon Valley Summit Identifies Safety Strategies for Self-driving Cars

AV industry leaders pinpointed several effective tactics, such as limiting vehicle speeds and empowering safety operators to ground vehicles.

Until recently, leading autonomous vehicle (AV) technologists posited that ultra-safe, go-anywhere robotaxis would soon be on the road. But questions about those timelines-and the safety of testing AVs on public roads-emerged in 2018 after a series of high-profile accidents. Consumers have since been caught in the middle between promises of eliminating highway fatalities and reports about deadly crashes.

The World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology was organized by Velodyne Lidar to help clear up the confusion. The second annual event, which took place in Santa Clara, Calif., on Oct. 2, gathered some of the AV industry's sharpest thinkers. While attendees did not walk away from the day's speeches and panel sessions with a well-defined roadmap, the summit yielded several common-sense guidelines for increasing self-driving safety.