The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board yesterday pledged to work with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to review laws in other countries governing the regulation of self-driving vehicles following a rise in collisions caused by the vehicles, the board’s acting chairwoman Iris Hsu (許悅玲) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said that 36 incidents of self-driving automobiles colliding with construction vehicles on freeways were recorded in 2021.
Last year, four people died in collisions caused by self-driving vehicles, he said.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
Over the past two years, 87 percent of collisions with freeway construction vehicles were caused by vehicles equipped with an advanced driver assistance system, he added.
Although the number of self-driving vehicles in the nation has been rising, laws to regulate them have yet to be drafted, Hsu Chih-chieh said.
“The US, Japan and Germany have already put relevant regulations in place. Taiwan only has the Unmanned Vehicles Technology Innovative Experimentation Act (無人載具科技創新實驗條例),” he said.
“Should we not identify laws that should be in place and establish a mechanism to investigate incidents caused by self-driving vehicles or autonomous buses?” he asked.
The safety board has experts to study self-driving vehicles and should bear some responsibility to regulate them, he added.
The transportation ministry, rather than the safety board, is in charge of regulating self-driving vehicles, Iris Hsu said.
“We have exchanged views on issues related to self-driving vehicles with academic experts. As an independent investigative agency, we cannot be players and referees at the same time… We can work with the ministry to review regulations in other countries,” she said.
Safety board employees appear to spend more time engaging in personal conflicts instead of investigating transportation incidents, DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
Although the board last year investigated nearly 60 marine incidents, it only investigated four aviation incidents, seven railway incidents and three highway incidents, Lin said.
“Despite more people using the highway system than marine transportation, the board investigated so few highway incidents last year because the criteria to launch investigations has been set too high,” he said.
“A highway incident must result in at least three deaths, at least 10 deaths and injuries, or at least 15 injuries to warrant an investigation,” he said.
The US National Transportation Safety Board investigates incidents if they pose “potential systemic risks,” he said.
“We do not see the board publish similar reports. Instead, we are seeing board employees engaging in internal fights by reporting each other’s wrongdoings, which is a waste of taxpayers’ money. The board is allocated a budget of about NT$200 million [US$6.5 million] per year,” he said.
“The agency’s budget plan for the next fiscal year should be subject to stricter scrutiny,” he added.
Lin also criticized the board for being slow to build capacity for investigating incidents caused by self-driving vehicles. As of March 28, 29 freeway construction vehicle collision accidents had been reported, with most of them caused by vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems, he said.
Former safety board chairman Young Hong-tsu (楊宏智) in February resigned following allegations that he visited family members and conducted other private affairs during work hours.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS