Re: Really??
You could more reasonably attribute the death to the lack of safety features required by law in US HGVs
I doubt that. JB's two tonne car was doing 74 mph when it hit the truck, it'd be a very impressive side under-run bumper that'd stop that. Even if it had, to avoid a similar fate, the vehicle has to stop in about four feet - which means that even if the bumper, the car body, and the airbags spread the deceleration evenly during the circa 0.05 seconds of the impact (which I doubt) then the driver would be subject to a minimum of about 60 G.
JB and his car had a part to play in his demise, but I'm unconvinced that a different trailer design could have saved him. However, the real root cause of this accident is the poor primary safety of US roads, often designed with uncontrolled flat 90 degree junctions on high speed roads (to save on the cost of alternative, safer layouts). These mix high speed through traffic with slow moving traffic crossing at right angles, and thus set up regular high risk conflict movements, regardless of whether a vehicle is self driving, or meatsack controlled. Anywhere in the world where there are this toxic (and cheap) mix of high speed and flat junctions, there's a history of high damage accidents. There's three choices here, all have nothing to do with self driving cars:
1) Do nothing, live with the risks and consequences of a cheap road design.
2) Pay to build or retrofit road layouts with better primary safety.
3) Pay a bit less for controls such as traffic lights, along with more enforcement at flat junctions, and accept that there's still some risk, and a modest check on through traffic volumes and speed.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
