Adam Kovacevich: On autonomous vehicles, Washington lawmakers face a fork in the road
By Adam Kovacevich
Washington is in the grips of a traffic safety crisis. According to figures from the state Department of Transportation, car crash fatalities hit a ten-year high in 2023, as did serious injuries. But as a new year begins, Washington lawmakers have a chance to turn that track record around by embracing new technology with the power to make streets safer: autonomous vehicles.
It’s easy to understand the safety advantages that driverless cars have over human drivers. AVs don’t drive drunk, they don’t drive high, and they’re never distracted. They have sensors capable of continuous monitoring on all sides and they maintain high accuracy even in bad weather with powerful radar and lidar technology.
Compare that with human drivers. As the Director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission recently explained when addressing this year’s sky-high traffic fatalities, driver and passenger decisions are an “obvious factor” in fatalities on Washington’s roads.
In fact, WTSC reports that three-quarters of Washington’s traffic fatalities last year involved impairment, distraction, speeding or not wearing seat belts. Of those four fatal behaviors, AVs automatically cross three off the list.
New, groundbreaking research comparing AV safety to human driver safety shows just how much better AVs perform on our roads. A recent study from Cornell examined AVs deployed in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles and human drivers in those same cities–the first study to make a true apples-to-apples comparison. The results? AVs reduced crashes with an injury by an estimated 85 percent over human drivers. That would translate to hundreds of lives saved and thousands of debilitating injuries prevented in Washington.
This year, lawmakers have a chance to bring those benefits to Washington residents with new legislation creating a framework to support AV deployment in the Evergreen State. Introduced in the state senate, SB 5594 would create uniformity in AV policies across Washington and ensure the safe ushering in of fully autonomous vehicles.
Other lawmakers have simultaneously proposed legislation that would take Washington in the opposite direction. SB 5872 would likely stop the deployment of AVs in Washington State before they hit the road by requiring AVs to have a human driver behind the wheel at all times. Of course, the economic benefit of AVs that makes their deployment viable is that companies operating AVs don’t also need to hire driver operators. Removing that benefit would hamstring innovation and spike the cost of deploying AVs across the state.
A human driver requirement would be like if lawmakers required residents with a pacemaker to hire a full-time EMT to stand nearby with a defibrillator. It’s expensive, it’s inefficient and it disincentivizes the adoption of a proven life-saving technology.
AVs’ impressive safety track record is why organizations like Moms Against Drunk Driving have supported their deployment. Organizations representing disabled and senior passengers have also championed AV deployment, noting that they offer a reliable and affordable pathway to enhanced independence.
The National Federation of the Blind argues that blind and low-vision people will be one of the largest beneficiaries of autonomous vehicle deployment. Traffic and mobility experts also predict that older generations, particularly people who have some manner of physical impairment, will benefit significantly from AV technology.
When it comes to autonomous vehicles, Washington lawmakers are at a fork in the road. In one direction, state policymakers can plow ahead with the status quo and continued annual traffic fatality records. Going the other direction, Washington can begin the adoption of a safe technology that promises to reduce lives lost on our roadways.
For Washington voters, families, drivers and passengers, the decision could be life-saving.
Adam Kovacevich is the founder of a center-left tech industry coalition called Chamber of Progress. Adam has worked at the intersection of tech and politics for 20 years, leading public policy at Google and Lime and serving as a Democratic Hill aide.