Are Autonomous Vehicles Really “Autonomous?”: The Importance of Human Factors in AV Safety

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles are automobiles that require no human intervention, but they still require user awareness. They are not yet fully developed, and their goal is to be completely autonomous. Despite having stricter safety standards than traditional vehicles, they are not yet safe enough. So, what is “safe enough?” Before going into depth about changes that should be made to enhance safety culture, a detailed explanation of the current information on autonomous vehicles will set up the improvements to follow: (1) the definition of autonomous vehicles (background), (2) the problem, (3) current state of autonomous vehicles and (4) future actions to take. Through extensive research, autonomous vehicles have been found to lack clear expectations from the user and efficacy from the existing safety regulations, which leads the research of this paper towards the next steps for an appropriate safety culture.