PETERS – Are self-driving cars a form of harm reduction?

UBER HAS SUSPENDED its testing of self-driving vehicles after a vehicle on self-driving mode hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona this week.

Small picture, it’s of course tragic for the person who died and her family.

But while some lamented that Skynet was finally rising up to kill us, a single fatality is the exception that proves the rule, so far: the rule that self-driving vehicles will be safer than those controlled by humans.

B.C. averages 285 fatalities in crashes per year.

A full 80 per cent of fatal crashes are caused by at least one of three contributing factors: speed, driver impairment or driver distractions.

Read More>>

James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.