CORALVILLE, Iowa — The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety expects that there will be approximately 3.5 million self-driving cars on U.S. roads by 2025. But there's a problem.
"These technologies have a lot of potential to improve safety and enhance mobility. But most of the testing is being taken place in urban areas," said Omar Ahmad, deputy director of the University of Iowa's Driving Safety Research Institute.
And that's a gap the U of I's researchers are looking to close.
For the last two years, the University's Driving Safety Research Institute has been testing an automated shuttle on rural Iowa roads. Those roads often present some unique challenges compared to city streets that make navigating them for difficult for automated vehicles.
"You can have a roadway that's paved, and has really good lane markings. And then suddenly those lane markings can disappear, and then suddenly, there can be no pavement," Ahmad said.
Researchers said there's at least one group that could be especially benefitted by safer AVs: people with mobility issues. That's because rural settings can often be lacking in ways to help them get around town.
"They typically don't even have a taxi service out there, and Uber doesn't operate out in rural areas, so an automated vehicle of the future that works really well can potentially be an amazing resource," Ahmad added.
The shuttle that researchers have been using the last two years is just for the study, so don't expect to see it out on the streets anytime soon. But researchers say the data they have collected can be used to help shape the future of automated vehicles as more and more of them end up on the road.
"We hope that that brings more light to where we are and that we encourage further development and further testing of these technologies," Ahmad said.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, 50% of all traffic fatalities in the United States occur on rural roadways, despite only 19% of Americans living in a rural area.