Self-driving cars may need to act more like humans, new research has found.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found autonomous cars with a greater focus on being “socially sensitive” would prove safer. What does being socially sensitive mean? In short, it seems that it’s driving more like a person. The researchers found that autonomous vehicles would be safer if programmed to “incorporate ethical considerations” and focus on protecting more vulnerable people on the road such as pedestrians or cyclists.

The researchers wrote: “Empirical results show that our scheme enables safer and more ethical decisions, reducing overall risk by 26.3%, with a notable 22.9% decrease for vulnerable road users.”

In other words, it’s sort of like the famous trolley problem. The research showed autonomous vehicles would be safest if they’re trained to reduce harm to the greatest extent possible.

Despite being a fact of American life, driving a cars can be incredibly dangerous. Nearly 45,000 people died in what the National Safety Council deemed “preventable traffic crashes” in 2024.

Autonomous vehicles have shown some promise as a safer alternative to human drivers. A recent report from robotaxi company Waymo showed a decrease in injury-causing crashes across all categories. It saw 92 percent fewer of such incidents with pedestrians, 82 percent fewer with cyclists, 82 percent fewer with motorcyclists, and 85 percent fewer crashes with suspected serious or worse injuries with other vehicles.