Fact Check: Could Self Driving Cars Really Save Lives in Rochester?

This July, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle released an eye-opening new report on pedestrian safety. After reviewing a decade of accident data, the newspaper reported that a pedestrian is hit by a car every day in Monroe County, and that six pedestrians die in these accidents every year.

The full report is worth a read, but the data shows just how dangerous life can be for pedestrians and motorists alike. Many safety advocates believe that self-driving cars will usher in a new era of public safety, saving countless lives.

But while states like California and Michigan are competing to foster innovation in self-driving cars, there has been little interest in bringing these systems to New York state so far. In fact, a 1971 law requires all New York drivers to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel at all time, which would actually make self-driving cars effectively illegal in the Empire State.

“I read about it all the time, and I’ve never heard even a whisper about bringing it to New York for any purpose,” Don Metzner, president of the Armory Garage in Albany, told the Times Union in May. “It’s an interesting theory.”

But in just the past two months, there have been major developments on the road to self-driving cars.

Early adopters, futurists, and tech-geeks went bananas for Tesla’s new “Autopilot” system, which was introduced this year in the Tesla Model S. Then, a Florida driver died in a fatal crash while using the Autopilot feature, a major speed bump for the new technology.

Now, Germany is considering equipping self-driving cars with a black box like the ones used in airplanes, while Nissan scaled back expectations for its own Autopilot-like technology. At a July 13 press conference to unveil the Nissan ProPilot, the automaker explicitly said the system is not self-driving, but rather a “driver assistant system.”

Unlike the Tesla Model S Autopilot system, the ProPilot won’t allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel. A torque sensor is installed in the steering column to ensure drivers keep a hand on the wheel. Torque sensors are used to detect the slightest change in torque or pressure, and after several seconds of hands-free driving, the ProPilot system would disengage completely.

While self-driving cars may one day help prevent pedestrian and driver deaths in Rochester, New York state, and the world at large, the technology is much further away than some futurists like to admit.