Should We Be Using Driverless Cars?

Self-driving cars are slowly coming to fruition. While there are for the most part already self-driving cars from Tesla they aren’t quite there yet. Many people fear for this future while others welcome it. There are several pros and cons that affect the opinions of consumers but the major question is. Should technology operate something that could result in death?

Firstly, how does a driverless car work. To put it simply, they use cameras and sensors that all relay back to a central computer to make decisions. They use many different sensors like LIDAR, infrared, and radar which pair with machine learning and source code. Using all three together should ensure that whatever the obstacle is, it gets picked up by a sensor and sent back to the computer. With this technology we may have concerns about the cars making the right decision. From this, the cars are able to think quickly about what the best move might be and choose that option quickly. If this split decision is the right decision then it means it is a safer option. If the car makes the wrong decision it could result in an incident that could cause more harm than the original question the car was faced with. For example, if a car cuts you off the car must decide which way to swerve or does I need to slow down or stop or speed up to make it around. If the car chooses one option or changes its choice as it goes through it could result in the your car accidentally hitting them instead of avoiding.

Some of the pros of self driving cars could be; increased safety, improved traffic, and efficiency. The safety is continuously worked on. If the car can get to a point where they can make better decisions than a human and communicate with other cars of the road to know what moves they will all make it could become a safer system. Driverless cars could have the ability to communicate with other cars so traffic goes smoothly. With being aware of what other cars might do we become safer. Cars could give way to other cars trying to make turns or merges by communicating. Finally, with all of these factors together traveling could be more efficient and take less time from point a to point b.

Driverless cars also have their concerns. One of the major concerns is cost. These cars and technology are expensive and can not be purchased by all. This means that not everyone would be able to have them meaning some of the pros could not work. Another concerns of these cars are cybersecurity. As these cars become more used people may worry about others hacking into the cars system and endangering the life of the passenger(s). The final concern is liability. If the car was driving its self and hit another vehicle or breaks a traffic law, who is at fault? Is it the operator? The company? The software? Who do you blame. this is a major issue for the consumer. This could be the “red flag” that keeps someone from using the self driving capabilities of the car. People do not want a decision the car made to lead them being charged with hitting someone or, even worse, killing someone.

Personly I do not like driverless cars. I am someone who likes driving and being in control of my vehicle. I would rather have the enjoyment of operating my car instead of haivng the car operate itself. I enjoy shifting and hearing my engine. These driverless cars are usually electic as well, which I dont like. People like to raise environment concerns but electric is not cleaner. The materials that are used in batteries must be mined in huge mines that ruin ecosystems. Most of the the power used in the grid today is still powered by non renewable fuel. This means that even though many believe they are making an impact they are still powered by fuel and natural gas. This conversions results in a loss of potential power. This is why I woud not choose to have a self driving car.

In its current state it is not a good idea for driverless cars to be in control of human lives. It may get there one day but we must wait and see before we lose human lives. Although, it could be very soon that everyone is in a driverless car or semi-auto driving. The technology gets better everyday and their could be a point in the near future where it is much better than humans and it is now not encouraged for people to drive for safety reasons. It is just a matter of time before we can know for sure.

“Tesla Model S” by nakhon100 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“Driverless car technology” by Department for Transport (DfT) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.