Harvard forum examining safety of self driving vehicles

Uber Autonomous Vehicle (Photo By Dllu – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

BOSTON — A Harvard University forum is examining how a recent death linked to self-driving technology is causing concern about safety.

Friday’s panel discussion at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health is exploring whether the field is advancing too quickly.

Some experts are pointing to the March death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona, as cause for serious safety concern. It was the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle.

Current federal regulations have few requirements specifically for self-driving vehicles, leaving it for states to handle.

Participants will include Deborah Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, and John Leonard, vice-president of research at the Toyota Research Institute. Toyota has been working with Uber on driverless systems.