Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - May 2020 - 3

Editorial
EDITORIAL
Bill Visnic
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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

"Clean" is the new AV safety paradigm
Privately-owned vehicles were
never so safe as they are today. Nor have
they made so much sense. That thought
hit me between the nostrils recently,
as I sprayed a pungent disinfectant
on the steering wheel of my family's
B-segment runabout. Carefully wiping
down the car's touch points with antibacterial cleaners has become a new
pandemic ritual for us after returning
home from food shopping and other
essential missions.
My little tribe generally keeps the interiors
of our two vehicles tidy.
Finding the occasional
French fry buried in a seat
track is, however, preferable to the dangerous
microbes deposited every
minute in the typical bus,
train, or ride-share. The
term "clean," as understood by transit passengers, means a few spritzes by a custodial crew racing to meet uptime targets.
Yet surface dirt in any vehicle pales
in comparison to the ominous health
concerns brought by COVID-19. Now
we wonder if the air within our driving
and riding spaces can kill us.
The coronavirus has brought a new
dimension to the term "occupant safety."
Developers of self-driving shuttles are
particularly concerned, engineers tell
me. So is the mobility-as-a-service
(MaaS) industry in general. Uber is
running TV ads thanking viewers... for
not riding with Uber. Even the most
germophobic Uber driver cannot get his
or her personally-owned vehicle clean
enough to deliver an acceptably "safe"
mobility experience in the killer-virus
environment.
As Cruise Origin chief engineer

Jason Fischer told me in a recent interview (see p.24), for the AV industry
to succeed it must instill a full and
abiding confidence in the customer
base that every self-driving vehicle is
safe in which to travel. Confidence that
they won't crash. Confidence of crash
integrity if impacted by another vehicle.
And now, confidence that "safe" means
ensuring that their cabins aren't petri
dishes for the next pandemic.
MaaS concerns
related to the global
health crisis exacerbate
declining consumer sentiment already underway.
The recently published J.D.
Power 2020 Q1 Mobility
Confidence Index Study
anticipates that postCOVID-19 consumer needs
for mobility may shift even
after life returns closer to
normal. Some people may
steer away from shared transportation
toward more private vehicle ownership,
experts noted. An upside: Self-driving
delivery services may arrive at an
optimal time when consumers look to
minimize social contact.
Billions in investment dollars are
riding on the promise that AVs will save
lives. But for the AV revolution to win
public confidence, more will have to be
spent on new innovations in cabin filtration, occupant sensing and health-monitoring and automated vehicle-sanitizing systems. Engineers who are up
to the challenge should ask: Will elderly
riders for whom autonomy holds the
greatest promise trust a MaaS app not
knowing if the roboshuttle coming for
them is hygienically-as well as structurally and dynamically-safe?
Lindsay Brooke, Editor-in-Chief

Developers
must ensure
automated
and shared
vehicle cabins
aren't petri
dishes for
the next
pandemic.

May 2020 3
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - May 2020
