Safety-oriented, partially automated vehicles could save up to $202 billion ann., according to study.

Partially automated vehicles, like Tesla’s Model S (if you like using the Autopilot) have been a topic of debate lately, as many consumers struggle over whether or not to trust the technology with their lives.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering may be hoping to end the argument once and for all. The institute recently released a study advocating that the public could enjoy economic and social benefits if safety-oriented, partially automated vehicle tech was deployed in all vehicles on the road.
The report, titled Cost and Benefit Estimates of Partially-Automated Vehicle Collision Avoidance Technologies, examines forward collision warning, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring systems. These technologies include partially autonomous braking or controls to help vehicles avoid crashes.
The researchers also analyzed the benefits and costs of deploying crash-avoidance technologies in the US light-duty vehicle fleet.
Collectively, all of these technologies could prevent or reduce the severity of up to 1.3 million crashes a year, including 10,100 fatal wrecks, according to the report.
The Economic Benefits of Partially Automated Vehicles
“While there is much discussion about driverless vehicles, we have demonstrated that even with partial automation there are financial and safety benefits,” said Chris T. Hendrickson, director of the Carnegie Mellon Traffic21 Institute.
Researchers assessed the economic advantages of accelerating deployment of partially autonomous vehicles by analyzing government and insurance industry data to create two cost/benefit scenarios.
In the first scenario, the researchers assumed all relevant crashes would be avoided to determine the annual costs of crashes. In the second scenario, they evaluated the impact of forward collision warning, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring systems on the quantity and severity of wrecks.
The researchers took into account the prices auto manufacturers charged for these technologies in 2015 and deduced how much it would cost to equip each car with the safety features, annualizing that amount over the lifetime of the vehicle.
They found a net benefit in both scenarios when comparing the price of equipping cars with safety technology to the expected annual reduction in the costs of crashes.
In a perfect-world scenario, where all crashes are avoided with partially automated technology, the researchers calculated an annual benefit of US$202 billion, or $861 per car.
An annual net benefit of $4 billion, or $20 per vehicle, was found when considering only blind spot monitoring, lane departure and forward collision crash avoidance systems.
The researchers believe that future improvements in technology and lower prices could lead to larger net benefits over time.
“If you bought a car right now with these safety systems at the current prices offered by auto manufacturers, both you and society would have a positive economic benefit,” explained Hendrickson. “We are seeing that partial automation is accomplishing crash and crash severity reductions, and we expect that to improve. This study creates a framework for regulatory action encouraging early deployment of partial automation technologies.”
To learn more, you can find the study in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. The project was funded by Carnegie Mellon’s Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation (T-SET), the National Science Foundation and the Hillman Foundation.