On various social media outlets some have touted driverless vehicles, going as far as to say that driverless vehicles will eliminate the security driver profession – honestly, can’t make this up. The following is ISDA advisory board member and VDI’s CEO Joe Autera’s response to those comments.
Autonomous vehicles are a science that we (VDI) have been researching for quite some time now. Based on that research, our opinion is that true self-driving cars will have little, if any, impact on the security driving profession in the immediate future.
First, because the technology is 100 percent prototypical, production costs have not even been considered. It is entirely likely that much like the Chevy Volt and Tesla, those costs will make them more of a novelty than a reality for the foreseeable future.
Second, currently only California, Nevada, Michigan, and Florida motor vehicle laws allow for driverless cars, and in those states, the law strictly limits such vehicles to testing activities. There is a whole range of issues, particularly regarding damage and injury liability, (i.e. who is the responsible party in vehicle crashes involving self-driven cars), system reliability, and security, etc., that must be addressed before full use is allowed. If, in fact, it is determined that the manufacturer is the party that assumes the lion’s share of liability for crashes or system malfunction, it may very well relegate the entire concept to the annals of engineering history, as the risk associated with a system malfunction / shutdown /so-called “blue screen of death” is monumentally greater with a vehicle moving on a crowded street than that associated with a similar event occurring with your laptop or desktop computer. Quite simply: A car crash is far more disastrous than a computer crash.
Third, the security risks associated with semi-autonomous vehicles are astronomical in scope and complexity. Those associated with fully autonomous cars are even more so, particularly when you consider the risks posed by Level 1 vehicles (i.e. defined by NHTSA as those which the driver has complete control over) to semi- and fully-autonomous vehicles. Those risks are compounded by the fact that those types of vehicles (Level 1 through Level 3, which currently are widely available) will, for the foreseeable future, far outnumber Level 4 cars, all of which are still in what could best be called the experimental stage of development.
Nonetheless, it is entirely possible that, at some point in the distant future, once market saturation of Level 4 vehicles is achieved, the skill sets the security driver must possess may be significantly different, just like the skill sets required of the protection specialist will be altered significantly when technological advances in laser weapons and rail guns lead to the proliferation of concealable, handheld versions.
This post is from the International Security Driver Association
The International Security Driver Association (ISDA) serves the Protective Services community. ISDA’s mission is to support an international forum of protective service providers who share knowledge for the purpose of enhancing the profession.
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