How self-driving cars can reduce hospital visits

Right now, the U.S. Army is hard at work on an autonomous vehicle project that's designed to eliminate a major threat for human soldiers: getting supplies through unsecured territory where there's a risk of encountering IEDs or other dangers.

The effort only makes sense, as there's no good reason to put drivers into dangerous positions that could just as well be handled by machines. Yet this is exactly what's happening today on U.S. roads. Americans simply driving their cars led to 2.44 million injuries last year, a statistically-significant jump of 4.5 percent vs. 2014.

What does this mean for hospitals? In 2012, more than 2.5 million people went to the ED (resulting in nearly 200,000 admitted hospitalizations) for treatment of motor-vehicle crash injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The civilian world could take a cue from the U.S. Army to reduce these numbers: Self-driving vehicles could prevent a large percentage of these crashes, and they are on their way to becoming a reality.

Fewer bad habits, fewer patients

Driverless cars directly address the root cause of most accident-related injuries, and many of the more than 35,000 fatalities that accompany them. That's because it's driver behavior that leads to such a high number of crashes. For starters, according to a major survey by the NHTSA, the "critical reason" for approximately 94 percent of all motor-vehicle crashes is something the driver did—or didn't do.

The most cited reason for a crash was what the NHTSA terms "driver recognition errors," often caused by inattention. Phone usage (talking and texting), is of course, a large part of this. The NHTSA notes that, in 2014, a driver's cell phone was responsible for about 13 percent of fatal crashes caused by distracted drivers as a whole. But it's actually only one part of a broader problem: That same year, along with 3,179 people killed, another 431,000 were injured in auto crashes involving distracted drivers.

And that does not include all the crash-related injuries caused by other poor human choices. Among the top 15 causes of car crashes recently cited by The Huffington Post were drunk driving, speeding, reckless driving, running red lights, tailgating, driving the wrong way on a one-way street, making improper turns and being under the influence of drugs. None of those factors is an issue with driverless cars.

There's also the other side of that coin: Not only are fully autonomous cars less likely to get distracted or make bad driving decisions, they're also more likely to "pay attention" to the road and make good choices. Today's cars already have driver-assistance systems that can steer and stop a vehicle if the driver doesn't react fast enough to a potentially dangerous situation. Tomorrow's self-driving cars, backed by vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology, will extend those capabilities to their logical conclusion, keeping a lot of people out of the hospital in the process.

An automotive safety net(work)

Although wireless communications technology has people rightly concerned about distracted driving, it's also a key to solving the problem. To take maximum advantage of the safety benefits of driverless cars, what's needed is a "connected" network of vehicles that shares information with every other element of the transportation grid, from trains to traffic lights. This way, all elements cooperate with each other: If one vehicle had to slow or stop, for instance, all vehicles behind slow or stop as well. Vehicles also would automatically stop at train crossings, stop at red lights to let pedestrians cross, take turns merging, and only complete a turn when safe to do so.

As one example, consider rear-end collisions. A basic fender-bender may seem like a minor concern, yet in a two-year study by the National Transportation Safety Board, the number of people injured in rear-end crashes in both years exceeded 500,000. Preventing these injuries by vehicle-to-vehicle communication may seem far-fetched at this point, but it shouldn't. After all, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class has a "Car-to-X" system that's currently available for European owners. These cars can share information with similarly equipped vehicles using a cloud- and cellular-based data network. When one vehicle on the network detects a potential road obstacle, it relays that information to others, so drivers have advanced warning and can take action accordingly.

The data-driven case for driverless cars and hospitals

It will no doubt take some convincing before the U.S. is ready for the wide-scale use of driverless cars. However, there's some compelling data to show how large a difference driverless cars can make when it comes to patient numbers.

A report by the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company claims that "for every person killed in a motor-vehicle accident, eight are hospitalized and 100 are treated and released from emergency rooms." (Applying that formula to the 2015 statistics from NHTSA means more than 287,000 people were hospitalized because of a car crash, and more than 3.5 million others were seen in an emergency room.) Autonomous vehicles, according to McKinsey, would eliminate up to 90 percent of crashes that bring those people to the hospital. While the move to fully autonomous vehicles won't happen overnight, it will represent a significant impact for hospitals, and most importantly, vulnerable drivers.

Charles Krome is an automotive journalist and consumer advice writer for CARFAX. He keeps a pulse on tech advances in the automotive industry, especially those that impact car value and driver safety.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Featured Whitepapers

Featured Webinars