WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Can Autonomous Vehicles Break the Speed Limit?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff. I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and this is a

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<v Speaker 1>classic brain Stuff episode. This one originally aired a few

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<v Speaker 1>years back, and unfortunately, we're not very much closer to

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<v Speaker 1>having autonomous vehicles capable of driving us around. I say

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<v Speaker 1>unfortunately because it could be a lot safer than human

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<v Speaker 1>drivers managed to be, because they would follow the rules

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<v Speaker 1>of the road better, Which brings us to an interesting question.

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<v Speaker 1>Why can today's autonomous vehicles exceed the speed limit? Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb. Here, imagine a future in

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<v Speaker 1>which you climb into the back of yourself driving autonomous

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<v Speaker 1>vehicle and instructed to take you on a late night

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<v Speaker 1>fast food run. Imagine also that you're particularly famished that night.

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<v Speaker 1>Would you be able to tell the computer to exceed

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<v Speaker 1>the posted speed limit and get you to your chicken

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<v Speaker 1>nuggets a little more quickly? Or will the system remind

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<v Speaker 1>you in a polite but firm, synthesized voice that you

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<v Speaker 1>have to That's a hard question to answer, since level

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<v Speaker 1>five autonomous vehicles, the hypothetical ones equipped to be able

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<v Speaker 1>to drive in any sort of environment with no human intervention,

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<v Speaker 1>are still somewhere away off in the future, but it

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<v Speaker 1>seems likely that when robotic cars hit the market, they'll

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<v Speaker 1>be designed to stick to speed limits, except perhaps when

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<v Speaker 1>safety requires speeding up. A few years back, when experimental

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<v Speaker 1>autonomous vehicles first began appearing on American roads, Reuters reported

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<v Speaker 1>that Google's self driving cars actually were designed to go

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<v Speaker 1>up to ten miles or sixteen kilometers faster than the

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<v Speaker 1>speed limit when traffic conditions made it necessary. The problem

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't that the robots got unpatient, but rather that human

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<v Speaker 1>drivers routinely exceed posted speed limits and tend to go

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<v Speaker 1>as fast as they think they can get away with

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<v Speaker 1>without getting a ticket. Researchers worried that with all those

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<v Speaker 1>humans out there careening around as fast as possible, it

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<v Speaker 1>might be dangerous for robots to plot along at the

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<v Speaker 1>legal limit or lower, but so far, there aren't any

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<v Speaker 1>signs that autonomous cars are prone to speeding. In California,

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<v Speaker 1>the only state that keeps track of accidents involving autonomous vehicles,

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<v Speaker 1>there have been nearly fifty mishaps reported since, and many

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<v Speaker 1>of them it was a human driven vehicle that rear

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<v Speaker 1>ended an autonomous one, often when the robot cautiously slowed

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<v Speaker 1>tield to another car or a pedestrian. In other instances,

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<v Speaker 1>human drivers got frustrated with slow poke autonomous vehicles and

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<v Speaker 1>clipped them as they tried to pass. According to report

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<v Speaker 1>on Speed Limits by the National Conference of State Legislatures,

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<v Speaker 1>government traffic planners envision a future in which autonomous vehicles

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<v Speaker 1>will most likely be programmed to not exceed the posted

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<v Speaker 1>speed limit in an area. Moreover, they're hoping that regimentation

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<v Speaker 1>will make the road safer because it will reduce the

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<v Speaker 1>danger that develops when the roads are filled with vehicles

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<v Speaker 1>traveling at varying rates of speed. On the downside, the

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<v Speaker 1>author's note, a proliferation of law abiding robots will mean

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<v Speaker 1>a reduction in the revenue that state and local governments

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<v Speaker 1>have been getting from ticketing speeders. But if we ever

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<v Speaker 1>get to the point where we have enough self driving

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<v Speaker 1>cars on the road that we could have row bought

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<v Speaker 1>only highway routes, networked vehicles might be able to travel

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<v Speaker 1>safely at higher speeds than human drivers. And University of

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<v Speaker 1>Illinois researchers say that because autonomous vehicles are designed to

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<v Speaker 1>adjust to and accommodate human drivers, maneuvers even a small

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<v Speaker 1>proportion of robots driving out a highway as few as

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<v Speaker 1>five percent of total cars could eliminate the stop and

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<v Speaker 1>go waves that lead to congestion. Today's episode was written

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<v Speaker 1>by Patrick J. Kiger and produced by Tristan McNeil and

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. For more on this lots of other topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit how stuff works dot com, the brain stuff It's

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