AMA urges automation caution

The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), the world's largest rights organisation for powered two-wheelers, has urged caution in the development of automated vehicles to ensure the new technology fully and effectively identifies and properly responds to motorcycles in all traffic situations.

In a position statement published on its website, the AMA has pressed America’s safety board to properly test algorithms and software in automated vehicles, and believes advanced crash-avoidance warning systems technologies used in motor vehicles must not supplant an operator’s responsibility to operate the vehicle in a safe and responsible manner.

The organisation’s also asked for the federal policy on highly automated vehicles to include a campaign to educate the public on these new technologies.

“To decrease the number of motorcycle crashes and resulting injuries and fatalities, it is paramount that automated vehicle technology, including highly automated vehicles, be capable of recognising and properly reacting to motorcycles in all traffic situations and settings, including in parking lots, amid urban congestion, at intersections and on highways, expressways and rural roads,” the position paper said.

While the AMA believes that “a properly designed, complete automated system of control, highly refined in its ability to recognise motorcycles, can truly save lives”, it says that “the industry is still many miles away from the development of a system that is able to interact safely with motorcycles in many common real world situations”.

“A failure to specifically address motorcycles in statutory and regulatory language amounts to the abandonment of motorcycle safety by legislators and regulators. Essentially the issue of distracted and inattentive driving will mushroom into a monumental hazard for motorcyclists when flawed AV technology enters the transportation mainstream,” the position statement continued.

“In summary, the American Motorcyclist Association’s position…. is such that these technologies must be thoroughly reviewed and tested to maximize crash avoidance involving motorcyclists. However, the rush to market for maximization of sales of AVs without complete and competent analysis of the relationship of motorcyclist safety to the AV environment is an invitation to injury and death.”

What’s your take on automated vehicles? Is the AMA stance a pragmatic one?

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