Driverless Cars? Not for Me

The thought of having a car that can take you anywhere without having to do anything major like actually drive sounds like a great thing, but that just does not sound very appealing to me. Self driving cars use sensors and cameras to see and sense where they are going, they also use gps like google maps to know where to go. Many cars today have road safety features such as lane assist and braking assist, that work all in hand with sensors so you do not swerve out of the lane you are in or so you do not hit someone that has stopped very quickly in front of you. Cars also have adaptive cruise control so it catches the speed of the person in front of you and then adjusts the speed according to how fast or slow they are going. Self driving cars do it all though, they do not need driver input such as using the pedals or steering wheel, all that needs to be done is enter the address and off you go. Many cars also have semi-use of these features.  The new GMC Sierra is an example of having semi-self driving but only with highway driving. This works by getting set to a speed and the lane assist keeps the truck in the lane and the cruise control keeps it at a steady speed until it senses another car then it adjusts its speed.  These features really do not allow the vehicle to be completely driverless though. It requires to you to be alert and in focus while the vehicle is in control. you can also take back control as simply as steering the vehicle and or hitting the brake or accelerator. I also wouldn’t want this feature because I pull trailers a lot and self driving cars are not set up for pulling a trailer. With this being said you can’t drive with a trailer attached the same way you would traditionally drive a passenger car. This is because while driving a trailer wide turns are needed so the trailer will clear the turn without hitting the side of the trailer on an object. Additionally, acceleration and braking while having a trailer attached is completely different too. Where I drive a manual truck it is necessary to hold higher RPMs so that when I shift into the next gear the RPMs are not too low and the truck loses power and potentially stalls. While braking, it is necessary to downshift and slow down way ahead of when you need to stop because there is a lot of extra weight being put onto the truck’s brakes. Self driving cars would not be able to make the correct turns and have the correct driving ability with a trailer attached. Unless these vehicles were programmed with a trailer mode I would not waste my money on a product like this. Only because it just would not be very practical for me. I only like to buy and have things that I need or will definitely use. Although the technology is here, I do not believe we will see self-driving passenger vehicles that have the ability to tow a trailer and do it in a safe manner because it just is not something a lot of people are in need of or in search of.  

“File:Jurvetson Google driverless car trimmed.jpg” by Flckr user jurvetson (Steve Jurvetson). Trimmed and retouched with PS9 by Mariordo is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.Copy text