How can self-driving vehicles
encourage seatbelt use?
Problem
Each year in the US, approximately 43,000 people die in vehicle crashes.1 Although self-driving vehicles can prevent some accidents, with so many human drivers on the road, some accidents will occur. Using a seatbelt reduces the risk of death in a vehicle accident by about 45% in cars and 60% in light trucks.2
Seatbelts, however, cannot save lives if riders do not use them. About 23.9% of rear seat riders (over the age of eight) in human-driven vehicles do not use a seatbelt.3 A shocking 62% of riders in taxis do not use a seatbelt.4 Self-driving vehicles should include procedures that increase seatbelt use.
In some states, drivers are ticketed for passengers not wearing seatbelts,5 which suggests that self-driving vehicles could be liable for unbuckled passengers. Even in states where drivers are not liable for passengers being unbuckled, self-driving vehicles can still reduce their liability risk by encouraging seatbelt use because seatbelt use dramatically reduces injuries due to accidents. In the event of an accident, dramatically reduced injuries means lower damages if the self-driving vehicle is found to be partially to blame.
Solution
Self-driving vehicles must take steps to encourage seatbelt use to save lives and reduce liability.
We would love to enable you to integrate these helpful features into your autonomous vehicles.
Encourage Seatbelt Use
Fine
Fines are easy for customers to understand and can be powerful deterrents. If a riders does not buckle their seatbelt, the system can fine the rider’s account.
Future fines can be progressively higher if the rider continues to not use a seatbelt. The system can take pictures of the unbuckled rider for use as evidence of not wearing a seatbelt. In situations where multiple unrelated people share one vehicle, facial recognition can be used to ensure the correct person is fined.
Incentivize
As a positive incentive, future ride prices can be reduced for riders who consistently buckle up. In addition, future ride prices can be increased for riders who do not wear a seatbelt (to price the liability risk into the cost of providing transportation to high-risk riders).
In situations where demand for rides is greater than ride supply, the system can prioritize ride requests based at least partially on the buckling histories of each person requesting a ride.
Deny
The liability risk can simply be too high for people who consistently refuse to use a seatbelt, so the system can deny ride requests from people with particularly egregious histories of not buckling up.
We would love to enable you to integrate these helpful features into your self-driving vehicles.
