Are self-driving cars safe? A UBC study says British Columbians aren’t too sure

Self-driving vehicles have been promoted as improving safety, but how do people -- like pedestrians -- feel about interacting with them? A UBC study finds out.

Self-driving vehicles have been promoted by manufacturers as improving the safety of roads, even being safer than most vehicles because they eliminate “human error.”

But new research out of the University of British Columbia’s Research on Active Transportation (REACT) Lab shows that British Columbians aren’t entirely convinced, especially when it comes to pedestrian comfort and safety.

Active modes of transportation like walking and cycling are being promoted in parallel with the introduction of self-driving vehicles.

“There’s this feeling of being unsafe, that may change the behaviour of these active users… they might decide to not walk as often,” said Gurdiljot Singh Gill a civil engineering PhD candidate who conducted the study. “And we don’t want these vehicles to be introduced in a way that discourages people from their behaviours.

“Our project is about learning how people would interact with these vehicles and how we can inform policy to introduce these vehicles responsibly.”

The research aims to bridge a gap. While there have been numerous studies on self-driving vehicles, few have looked at how people will be interacting with them.

Participants had to watch several video clips that showed people interacting with vehicles. Half were labelled as self-driven and the other half were labelled as human-driven when they were all actually human-driven. The study was designed this way to detect bias.

Of the 1,133 people surveyed across B.C., 41 per cent thought pedestrians faced reduced safety and comfort levels during interactions with self-driving vehicles.