WHICH LEADER DO YOU ADMIRE MOST? Promoting Diversity: Women's History Month – Thoughts on a Safer Road System

I was at a talk where a person mentioned the results of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers survey from 2015. "Born out of the World Economic Forum, the Global Shapers Community is a network of inspiring young people under the age of 30 working together to address local, regional and global challenges." "The more than 1,000 survey respondents are all members of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, a network of over 450 city-based hubs of young, civically engaged leaders aged between 20 and 30."

The survey asked: WHICH LEADER DO YOU ADMIRE MOST? 

Author's note: think who you would list before reading further? Answer in the comment section!

Unfortunately, the results from the group did not include any women. 

https://www3.weforum.org/docs/Media/GSC/GSC_AnnualSurvey15.pdf

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/which-leaders-do-millennials-admire-the-most/

It is so unfortunate that when survey's like this ask for admired leaders, people do not think about women of integrity, leadership and who change the world for the better. To encourage people to think about admired leaders from both genders, please see the following.

Author’s note: When I was told about this, I could list some women leaders like Angela Merkel, Chancellor Germany and Theresa May, Prime Minister, U.K on the spot. After thinking about it, one leader I highly admire is Malala Yousafzai. Malala is working for a world where every girl can learn and lead without fear. I believe that education is how we can really make a difference to support girls and women and promote diversity. To recognize Women's History Month, I will be donating to her work this month. I would also encourage you to read her book. https://www.malala.org/about 

“Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani student and education activist. She is known for her activism for girls' and women's rights, especially for being allowed to go to school. She was a victim of a gunshot attack in October 2012. Yousafzai is the youngest person to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. She was 17.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai

The Global Shapers survey highlights the need to promote diversity and women leadership.  March is Women's History Month https://womenshistorymonth.gov/

Here is a list that shows “The 22 Most Powerful Women In Politics”

·        No. 1: Angela Merkel, Chancellor Germany

·        No. 2: Theresa May, Prime Minister, U.K.

·        No. 3: Tsa Ing-Wen, President, Taiwan

·        No. 4: Michelle Bachelet, President, Chile

·        No. 5: Federica Mogherini, Foreign Policy Chief, European Union

·        No. 6: Ivanka Trump, Senior Advisor, The White House

·        No.7: Ruth Ginsburg/Elena Kagan/Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justices

·        No. 8: Queen Elizabeth II

·        No. 9: Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Prime Minister, Bangladesh

·        No. 10: Beata Maria Szydlo, Prime Minister, Poland

(showing the top 10 on the list)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/11/01/women-who-rule-the-world-the-25-most-powerful-female-political-leaders-2017/#42d9eab05c1b

Here is another list of “The World's 100 Most Powerful Women”

         Rank     Name                                 Country                          Category

·        #1          Angela Merkel                 Germany                           Politics

·        #2          Theresa May                    United Kingdom              Politics

·        #3          Melinda Gates                 United States                    Philanthropy/NGO

·        #4          Sheryl Sandberg              United States                   Technology

·        #5          Mary Barra                      United States                   Automotive

·        #6          Susan Wojcicki                United States                   Technology

·        #7          Abigail Johnson              United States                   Finance

·        #8          Christine Lagarde            France                               Economy

·        #9          Ana Patricia Botín           Spain                                Finance

·        #10        Ginni Rometty                 United States                   Technology

(showing the top 10 on the list)

https://www.forbes.com/power-women/list/2/#tab:overall

A Safer Road System & Getting the Facts Right

I was at an Automated Vehicle Task Force meeting and there was a comment that New Research Shows Men Are More Comfortable With Self-Driving Cars Than Women.  “Men are less wary of the idea of letting go of the wheel, according to the poll. While 77% of the female respondents said they would not be comfortable riding in self-driving cars, far fewer men made the same claim (55%).”

https://futurism.com/new-research-shows-men-more-comfortable-self-driving-cars-women/

Author’s note: the results of this study reminded me of the quote: “fools rush in where angels fear to tread” - Pope

I made the comment that women should be more concern about male drivers than Self-Driving Cars per the following statistics:

71% of all motor vehicle crash deaths in 2016 were males. Males accounted for 71% of passenger vehicle driver deaths, 49% of passenger vehicle passenger deaths, 99% of large truck driver deaths, 65% of large truck passenger deaths, 70% of pedestrian deaths, 84% of bicyclist deaths, and 91% of motorcyclist deaths. https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/gender

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has deployed its annual traffic safety report - Traffic Safety Facts: A Compilation of Motor Vehicle Crash Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the General Estimates System. https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/TSFTables/TSFAR.htm#

Vulnerable Road Users (pedestrians, bikers) fatalities have gone up significantly in the past few years. Male pedestrians have a 2.4 times higher "Pedestrians Killed and Fatality" rate than Females. Per the % of fatalities overall, Males are 1.6 times more likely to drive drunk and 1.4 times more likely to speed. “fools do rush in where angels fear to tread” 

Automation Bias

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao (another leader I admire), noting research that 94% of traffic crashes were due to human error, said: "There’s a lot at stake in getting this technology right.“ ... “Technology can do so much to improve the competitiveness of our country, the quality of life of our residents and citizens but there is great angst and anxiety on the part of many people about emerging technologies, how they work, what they really mean, what it means for privacy.” https://www.c-span.org/video/?424527-102/transportation-secretary-elaine-chao-addresses-nga

Getting this technology right is so important. The first auto pilot Tesla driver died because he was using a level 2 technology as if it was level 4. This is automation bias. It is so important to use technology properly and not to be overly reliant or to be overly cautious about the technology. Either error can lead to tragedies.

I have developed a talk on Transforming Transportation With Self-Driving Cars & Drones in the Next 20 Years Like We Transformed Computers and Communications in the last 20 Years I have given this talk to state and local government, IoT professional and community groups, high school students and 4th and 5th graders – adjusting the material as needed for the audience. When I give this talk, I usually get comments about anxiety with the technology – other than the 4th and 5th graders - they all want to ride in self-driving cars or self-flying cars.

I have written a blog related to this talk. Transformation – The Rise of the Autonomous Vehicles in 2016 and the State of the AV Industry https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/transformation-rise-autonomous-vehicles-2016-state-av-doug-hohulin

Misconceptions in Vehicle Automation and other Misconceptions

I was watching the video: A Legal Perspective on Three Misconceptions in Vehicle Automation - Bryant Walker Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgw1kvMhSVo

He made the comment that in the past (and even now?), some males would make jokes of women drivers and even the futuristic cartoon the Jetson used this stereotype.

In the article: Jane Jetson and the Origins of the “Women Are Bad Drivers” Joke

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/jane-jetson-and-the-origins-of-the-women-are-bad-drivers-joke-17672597/

“This episode wears its sexism rather proudly at every turn, playing it for laughs as men are constantly terrified of women behind the wheel — or the yoke as the case may be. George pulls up behind a young woman driver and becomes confused by her hand signals. “Women drivers, that’s the problem!” George shouts at the woman.”

This encourage me to find this article: "Will old ‘joke’ about women drivers ever go away”

https://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/will-old-joke-about-women-drivers-ever-go-away-460015.html

But how ironic, sad, tragic that our society in the past makes fun of women drivers when the fault, dear Brutus, is usually with the male driver.

It is only by education and exposing the truth can we promote diversity and safety. I would encourage all of us to think about the great women in history and of today that have made and are making a better world for all of us. And also, let’s stop with the stereotype jokes that are not only sexist but factually wrong. I do believe that in the next 5 years, we can have a much safer road system and in less than 20 years, we can have a road system with zero fatalities as long as we can get the "technology right" and help people not to make human errors.

Epilogue: The Shark in the Lake

I like to boat and surf in a lake in Kansas. Sometimes when a friend’s child come out to boat, the child is afraid of the fish in the water. They are sometimes afraid there will be a shark in the water. When they express this fear (thanks to Hollywood), I think to myself: it is not the sharks that you need to worry about but the snakes – because occasionally I do see snakes in the water. I doubt the kid or my friend would appreciate this humor and so I do not express it.

The risk of a shark (or snake) hurting a person in a Kansas lake is extremely low, but yet, we fear and think about them more than we should (thanks to shark week). I think the AV technology is like the shark problem.  We need to make sure that ADAS and AV technology is safe when introduced but, we should focus on how to reduce the cause of most of the accidents - human error. Technology can help solve this problem if done right.

Author’s note: I do not like snakes that are not between me and a cage or someone else – same with sharks when I scuba dive. A friend of mine who studied snakes in college said there are no poisonous water snakes in Kansas but my guess is sometimes poisonous land snakes go into the water for a swim. To be fair, in all my 15 years of boating, snakes have never bothered me. I am sure my boat has bothered some of them.

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