Electric cars- can you trust them?

Self-driving cars, also known as electric cars, have been a big topic of conversations in society for years now.  Can we trust a car that drives itself and is it really safe? Tesla is a huge self driving electric car manufacturer and clean energy company that says electric cars are more fun to drive. Autonomous cars are vehicles that don’t require the presence of a human to be behind the wheel. You see them everywhere. These autonomous cars are on the rise, but how do you know if we can really trust them?

The first thing is, you have to  know how these cars work before you can decide whether you trust them or not. These special electric cars are powered by sensors, laser beams, GPS, radar,  cameras, radars, and AI, also known as Artificial Intelligence. The technology that the electric car uses is able to create a 3D picture from signals that it receives. It has adaptive cruise control to control the speed and sensors that keep you in the lanes. The electric car  has cameras around it.  They create a map of where you are and they can sense their surroundings by using the lasers and cameras.  From the article, “What is an Autonomous Car? – How Self-Driving Cars Work” it says “Video cameras detect traffic lights, read road signs, track other vehicles, and look for pedestrians.” The main point of these electric cars is to help provide cleaner energy to the environment while still having fun driving them. What occurs on the road is therefore no longer influenced by human drivers’ various bad habits.

Furthermore, there are some disadvantages and complications to having an electric car. These autonomous vehicles give a false sense of security. None of these cars are completely “driverless” so the label is somewhat deceiving . There is also flawed technology like vehicle acceleration, braking, and steering systems frequently disconnect with no warning. Batteries are required to be changed more often in an electric car. Consequently, electric cars are limited in range and speed because of their battery life despite taking up to 6 hours to fully charge your battery. You never know when a computer or machine is going to malfunction and as a result of this the car could cause a crash. There are real life driving circumstances, like quick weather changes, or roads, lanes, and different conditions as well.

So ultimately, it all comes down to this, do you put all your trust into this new high tech technology or not? I think that these cars are the future and they will be here whether we like them or not, so we should adapt to them and use them to help create and maintain a safe environment.

“Tesla Model S” by Daniel Piraino is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Copy text