"21st Century Luddites"... Why Put a Cone on Autonomous Vehicles?

Protests Against Autonomous Driving Technology Increase in the US
637 Cumulative Autonomous Vehicle Accidents in California
Autonomous Vehicle Collides with Fire Truck... Useless When Communication Fails
Developers Face Growing Challenges as Testing and Commercialization Accelerate
Focus on Developing Systems Reflecting Domestic Driving Habits

In the middle of a street in San Francisco, USA, people are placing orange cone-shaped safety caps on the bonnet of a GM Cruise Robotaxi. When the orange cone is placed on the bonnet equipped with autonomous driving sensors, the Robotaxi becomes immobilized. If there were a driver, they could simply get out of the car and remove the cone, but for an unmanned Robotaxi, just putting on one cone turns it into a useless object. A cutting-edge technological marvel instantly becomes an obstacle disrupting traffic flow. San Francisco is the city where autonomous driving technology is being adopted the fastest in the world. Recently, protests highlighting the blind spots of autonomous driving technology have been occurring throughout the downtown area.

It takes a lot of effort and time to establish advanced technology in a society. The stage and speed of technological development are important, but social acceptance to embrace it must also be supported. Recently in San Francisco, as side effects that can occur during the transitional period of new technology adoption have been emerging one after another, the number of people opposing the introduction of autonomous vehicles is increasing. People sometimes compare them to the 'Luddite movement' (resistance to new technology) that occurred in early 19th century England and call it the '21st-century Luddite movement.'

Protesters placed a traffic cone on a Google Waymo self-driving car operating in San Francisco, USA.
[Photo by Safe Street Rebel]

On the 17th (local time), an accident occurred in downtown San Francisco where a Cruise Robotaxi carrying passengers collided with a fire truck. This happened because the unmanned taxi completely failed to detect the sudden movement of the fire truck responding to an emergency call late at night. San Francisco fire and police authorities officially stated their continuous opposition to the introduction of Robotaxis. The fire department reported that since April this year, there have been more than 55 cases where Robotaxis obstructed firefighters' emergency responses.

There have also been many cases where Robotaxis, rendered unresponsive, blocked fire trucks during emergency dispatches. It takes only a few minutes to switch a Robotaxi to manual driving mode, but firefighters argue that there is a significant gap between the 'immediate' response they require in emergencies and the 'as soon as possible' response promised by autonomous driving companies. In situations where a person's life depends on one or two minutes, 'as soon as possible' is enough time to cause a fatality.

On the 11th, ten Cruise Robotaxis stopped on a street near the beach, causing traffic congestion. This was due to a large crowd gathering for a concert in the nearby area and increased mobile phone usage disrupting the surrounding communication systems. On the 15th, a Robotaxi entered a nearby construction site and got stuck in unset concrete. Additionally, concerns that unmanned autonomous vehicles could be used as 'moving love hotels' became a reality as couples were found having sexual relations inside Robotaxis.

All these incidents occurred within less than a week after the U.S. transportation authorities granted Google Waymo and GM Cruise permission to operate 24-hour paid Robotaxi services in San Francisco. Ultimately, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recommended reducing the number of Cruise Robotaxis in operation to half of the original plan (200 vehicles). Since allowing autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in September 2014, there have been 637 reported autonomous vehicle-related accidents to the DMV as of the 16th of this month.

Protesters opposing the introduction of autonomous vehicle technology in San Francisco, USA, are driving a line of autonomous vehicles fitted with traffic cones on top.
[Photo by safe street rebel]

Social side effects during the acceptance of advanced technology surpass engineers' imagination. The ultimate goal of engineers is to eliminate unforeseen variables one by one and achieve technical perfection. On a social level, the new challenge is to identify problems during the technology acceptance process and establish appropriate systems and norms.

In the early stages of autonomous driving technology development, the challenges engineers faced were relatively simple. Early engineers overlooked the fact that passengers might exit without closing the door. Robotaxis with open doors stood idly on the road, unable to handle this new variable. This problem is relatively easy to solve by adding technology to automatically open and close taxi doors.

However, as test drives on actual roads increased, the challenges to consider became more difficult. Questions requiring social discussion were added, such as: ▲ What if a passenger leaves behind a bag or belongings? ▲ What if a sudden earthquake disables all communication equipment? ▲ What if a passenger suddenly experiences a safety or health issue like a heart attack or shock? ▲ If an autonomous vehicle causes an accident, what is the fault ratio between the vehicle and pedestrians? ▲ What if someone hacks the autonomous vehicle?

Especially when developing and testing autonomous vehicles domestically, additional challenges arise considering driving environments and the unique driving habits of Korean drivers. In Korea, jaywalking is frequent on narrow roads. Drivers tend to move based on situational judgment between drivers and pedestrians rather than yielding to pedestrians first. Technology is needed to detect suddenly crossing pedestrians and precisely predict their movement directions.

In Korean urban areas, tailgating and sudden lane cutting also frequently occur. Autonomous vehicles are set with default safety distances to maintain a certain distance, but maintaining a comfortable safety distance in the congested streets of Seoul may prevent the vehicle from moving forward at all. On the other hand, narrowing the safety distance could increase the vehicle's fault ratio in accidents due to insufficient safety distance. Finding an appropriate safety distance that fits Korean traffic flow and surrounding conditions is a challenge for developers.

A representative from a domestic autonomous driving startup said, "In Korea, where new technology adoption is conservative, a transitional approach such as deploying safety personnel and gradual technology introduction is necessary until autonomous driving can be socially accepted." They added, "Although professional drivers will disappear as a job due to autonomous driving introduction, a new concept job similar to the past 'conductor' role may reemerge."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.