It is likely that North Carolina residents may soon have the experience of sharing the road with autonomous vehicles. Right now, autonomous vehicle companies are testing their vehicles on the road. They need their autonomous driving systems to be able to safely interact with numerous things on the road. This could include bicycles, pedestrians, other passenger cars, delivery vans and trucks, stray animals and motorcycles. The data that these companies are gathering now will prepare their autopilot systems to navigate the roads in the future.
It can be challenging for human drivers to accurately navigate the road with motorcycles. One could imagine the challenges that an autonomous vehicle might have. To this end, an autonomous vehicle developer worked with a motorcycle club to spend the entire day helping the software become more familiar with having bikes on the road.
For a good portion of the testing, the cars that were being used were operated manually by a human. During the testing, the data team was collecting information from a variety of scenarios that autonomous cars are likely to encounter on the road. For example, they gathered data with motorcycles being positioned in different locations relative to the location of the vehicle. They gathered data with the car having a motorcycle in front of it and motorcycles approaching from different angles.
The autonomous car software developer was able to gather information from a variety of motorcycle types since the individuals in the club all used different types of bikes. Of course, there is more data to gather than what could be collected in just one session.
This testing is important because motorcycle accidents are often traumatic, leading to spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries. When an individual is a victim in a motorcycle accident, the negligent driver may be financially responsible. A personal injury attorney may be able to help a motorcycle accident victim get the compensation they are due for their accident. The attorney may help their client get access to resources and information that will allow them to show the other party was negligent. Attorneys may represent their clients in court and help them interact with insurance companies.