According to the National Safety Council, an estimated 38,300 people were killed and another 4.4 million were injured as a result of accidents on US roads in 2015. The vast majority of fatal accidents are due to human error, so self-driving vehicles have the potential to save a lot of lives. Indeed, one study estimated that widespread adoption of self-driving vehicles by the year 2030 could elminate 90 percent of all auto accidents in the United States, thus eliminating close to $190 billion in auto repair and health care-related costs annualy, and even more importantly, saving thousands of lives. The NHTSA recently adopted the Society of Automotive Engineers' levels for automated driving systems. The six levels range from complete driver control to full autonomy, as summarized below, Level O no automations: A human driver controls it all steering brakes, acceleration, and the like, although the car may include some warming or intervention Level 1 driver assistance): Most functions are controlled by the human driver, but some specific functions such as steering or accelerating) can be done automatically by the car Level 2 (partial automatical These cars have at least one driver assistance system of "both steering and acceleration deceleration using information about the driving environment bsuch as cruise control or line-centering that is automated. The driver must still always be ready to take control of the vehicle, however, to handle "dynamic driving tasks Level 3 conditional automation Drivers are able to completely shift "safety-critical functions to the vehide under certain traffic or environmental conditions. The driver is still present and is expected to respond appropriately it asked to intervene Level 4 Ovigh automation: At this level, cars are fully autonomous and are designed to handle all aspects of the dynamic driving task-even if a human driver does not respond appropriately to a request to intervene-Including performing all safety critical driving functions and monitoring roadway conditions for an entire trip. However, it's important to note that this is limited to the operational design domain of the vehicle meaning it does not cover every driving scenario Level 5 full automation Cars at this level have a fully autonomous system that is designed to handle all aspects of the dynamic driving task under all the roadway and environmental conditions that could be managed by a human driver - including extreme environments, such as on dirt roads which are unlikely to be navigated by driverless vehicles in the near futurel Autonomous vehicles are chock fut of sensors and cameras that observe, monitor and record the surrounding environment, including other vehicles in the vicinity. All these data are fed into an artificial intelligence algorithm that makes decisions on what movements are right wront site, and unsate for the car to performe given the conditions it is experiencing Self- driving cars even have the ability to share their driving experiences and recorded data with other cars so that each car's computer can adapt its algorithm to the environments faced by other vehicles. The goal of this information sharing would be to improve the ability of all self-drivint vehicles to react to situations on the road without actually having to experience those situations forstand Tesla CEO Elon Musk, perhaps optimistically, anticipates the first fully autonomous Tesla to be ready by 2018 but expects that regulatory approval may require an additional one to three years, Aud. MW.Flat Curyster. Ford General Motors Mercedes, Nissan Toyota Volvo, and Waymo (the new name of Goodles self-driving division all have some level of autonomous vehicle today and all have plans to deliver a fully autonomous vehicle by 2025 or on Testing of autonomous vehicles has not been without incident, however, in 2016, one of Google's self-delving cars hit a bus during a test drive in California because the comidean incorrect sumption about how the bus would react in a particular situation. The vehicle had Idented an obstruction on the road shead so it decided to sto wait for the lahe text to it to clear and then merge into the other one. Although the vehicle detected a chybus copro.ching in that tan, itinade an incorrect assumption that the bus driver would slow down The bus driver, however, assumed the car would stay put, so he kept moving forward. The ruled out hitting the side of the bus while doing about 2 mph. This was the first time in several years of testing on to that a Good self-driving aroused a crash Understanding whwa crach involvintaxelf-driving car occurred is important in order to avoid repeat of that wident statios in this case, Google made necessary changes to its software so that it would more deeply understand that buses and other lange velsidesse les likely to y oth other types of which a A Tesla Model S with its autopilot system activated was involved in a fatal crash in 2016, the first known totality in a Tesla in which autopilot was active. The accident occurred when tractor traler drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither the driver nor the car noticed the big rig or the trailer against a brightly it sky and the brakes were not applied. The vehicle's radar dide't help in this case because, according to Testa, itunes out what looks like an overhead road sign to avoid false braking events." The NHTSA is Investigate the accident to determine if the utopilot system was working properly. It not. It could consider ordering a recall to repair the problem QUESTION When self-driving cars are involved in accidents, where does ability reside? Is it the driver's fault? is the car manufactorer or software manufacturerbel? How might the deployment of self-driving cars affect the besuance industry