LINDSEY HAJDUK AUTONOMOUS BICYCLE VEHICLES & PEDESTRIAN PUBLIC SAFETY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER
CONTEXT: PEDESTRIAN/BIKE DEATHS ARE RISING WITH DIGITIZATION OF AUTOMOBILES • Pedestrian fatalities are up 48% since 2008 • 6,000+ pedestrians killed in 2018 • 4,000 children killed in car crashes annually • Anchorage’s auto-centric infrastructure already is dangerous: • One person injured per day in car wrecks • One pedestrian hit every three days • One bicyclist hit every three days
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE TESTING HAS BEEN LIMITED TO MOSTLY DRY, SUNNY CLIMATES • Autonomous vehicle companies don’t have disclosure requirements regarding testing, but public reports suggest testing has primarily occurred in dry, sunny climates (CA, AZ, FL) • Camera technology has trouble perceiving depth viewing white • It will take hundreds of thousands of hours testing (at least) in icy, snowy environments for autonomous vehicles to be safe • Alaskans shouldn’t be the guinea pigs
SILICON VALLEY EXECS BLAME PEOPLE, NOT THEIR OWN CAR TECHNOLOGY Industry won’t protect public. So we’re depending on government.
Anchorage Assembly should prohibit use of autonomous vehicles operating ASSEMBLY without human driver until and unless they have been operated safely in similar MUST ACT conditions in winter cities TO PROTECT PUBLIC Silicon Valley model of “iteration” i.e. testing by trial and error works fine for SAFETY some applications but not operations of vehicles that will kill people in the experimentation process
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