Consumer Watchdog demands transparency from Uber for autonomous vehicle test

Automotive industry stakeholders have touted autonomous cars as being much safer than human drivers. According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 94 percent of crashes are caused by human error, so it seems that obvious that adding more automation will make cars safer. However, nonprofit public interest group Consumer Watchdog warns that the rush to deploy self-driving cars is dangerous. "We're very concerned that there is a real press to rapidly deploy these things too quickly," Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project director John Simpson tells ZDNet. "There needs to be very adequate safety precautions and procedures in place."