Self-Driving Cars

There is zero doubt that self-driving vehicles are present in our near future, but will their comfort be worth the risk of malfunctions that our current tech already has? There are plenty of benefits to self-driving cars that revolve around safety and not just comfort. The question will be how reliable they are, would you trust your life with AI? I believe in, the future of AI and I’m excited to see the innovations that prerequisite the commercialization of self-driving vehicles. I will talk about the current technology and obstacles within innovation.

The technology used is unprecedented in the commercial vehicle industry. They use lasers, invisible to the human eye. Since light is the fastest thing and consistent in speed, it uses sensors and lasers, dueled with a self-learning computer that builds a 3d environment to navigate and optimize; along with GPS. They also have smart braking to save fuel and will communicate will other cars to synchronize and use road space efficiently. The smart AI and 3d environment lets the car see unordinary obstacles, solve the problem and learn for future encounters.

Since history has been recorded, society has been terrified of innovation and automation they don’t understand. With that being said, there are still factors that render self-driving cars unready; A few examples fall under legal issues. If the car does malfunction and someone gets hurt who is responsible legally? Did the driver try to take over, or did the vehicle actually make a mistake? That’s the legal issue. Another problem is the reliability of the manufacturers. If the biggest company google still has malfunctions, would you trust your life with a machine that’s controlled through AI? What if the danger isn’t even from malfunction, but from hacking? Skilled hackers and terrorists in the past have stolen and leaked documents from our own government; so how reliable will their firewall be compared to the United States government?

As of today, there’s no fully autonomous vehicle for sale. However, newer makes of some vehicles have self-steering, for highways. Some of these companies include “Tesla” and “GMC”. Research firm “Global Data”, says we should be able to buy self-driving cars by the year 2035; that’s not too far away, but it shows how primitive the technology currently is. Self-driving cars need to reach “Level 5” systems to be fully autonomous. Tech Spot says: “A Level 5 system will perform all driving functions regardless of conditions, roads, traffic, etc. There is never a need for a driver to take control.”(TechSpot).

In conclusion, there’s no avoiding the future of self-driving cars. Once the technology is obtained, they’ll be commercialized and people will decide if they want one or not; when the time comes we’ll have to deal with the problems that come with it.

“The first Tesla Model 3 Deliveries tonight!!!!” by jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.