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Self-driving cars may need billions of more miles of testing

A recent report from the Rand Corporation supports the misgivings that drivers in Missouri may have about self-driving cars. The report says that automakers and the developers of self-driving technology are rushing to introduce autonomous vehicles to the public and that, as a result, they are neglecting to test the vehicles for a sufficient number of miles.

The report goes on to say that even under aggressive testing assumptions, the self-driving cars that are currently out may require decades or centuries to undergo sufficient testing. It may take millions or billions of miles before the vehicles are deemed safe enough. Waymo has tested its vehicles for the longest time, clearing 10 million miles in the real world and 7 billion miles through its in-house simulation technology, but this may not be enough.

The report calls for a thorough testing regime, and perhaps Nvidia is the only company that has proposed such a course of action. It announced a Drive Constellation simulation platform that would allow developers to test variables like road conditions, traffic flow, weather, pedestrian behavior and differences in traffic lights.

Concerns about self-driving cars have been lingering for years. In May 2016, a Tesla driver who had his vehicle on Autopilot died in a collision. In March 2018, a pedestrian in Arizona was struck and killed by an Uber self-driving vehicle.

If a self-driving car is involved in a car crash, victims may consider filing a claim against the maker of the car. Proving negligence on the part of the driver or the automaker might be hard without legal assistance, so victims may want to schedule a consultation with a lawyer. Accident attorneys usually have teams of investigators to help strengthen a case. Victims may have their lawyer negotiate for a settlement with the other side.