Are Driverless Cars Ready for Prime Time?
Driverless cars are closer to becoming a reality, with dozens of models on display at the recent Consumer Electronic Show. While autonomous vehicles are generating a lot of buzz, there are still many legal, regulatory and safety concerns that must be addressed before we can all retire from “driving.”
Rise of the Robot Car
Autonomous vehicle technology is poised to become an $87 billion market by 2030, according to Lux Research. While Google may have got the ball rolling, nearly every major vehicle maker is now working on an autonomous vehicle. According to most experts, driverless cars are likely to be available for consumer purchase within the next ten years.
To speed up development, President
…show more content…
In 69 of the incidents, he driver was forced to take control of the car in order to avoid colliding with another vehicle or other object. Notably, the autonomous cars had difficulty detecting pedestrians, traffic lights, bicyclists, low-hanging branches, and the proximity of parked vehicles. The report confirms that many safety risks still exist for self-driving vehicles.
Potential Legal Questions
In California, current regulations governing driverless cars only apply to test vehicles. However, the Department of Motor Vehicles is currently working on more comprehensive laws. A draft released in January reflects the fact that the technology is still developing. It would require a licensed driver behind the wheel capable of taking control, as well as a functional steering wheel, gas pedal and brake.
Several safety groups have voiced their support for the stringent regulations, which vehicle makers like Google have characterized as too onerous. As noted by Consumer
…show more content…
consumers, with defective air bags, car seats, and medical devices all making headlines in recent weeks. Thankfully, technology is making it easier to find out if you may be impacted.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently launched a public safety campaign targeting defective vehicles. Given the rapid rise in auto recalls, the agency now recommends that consumers check for open recalls at least twice a year and to get their vehicles fixed as soon as possible. NHTSA provides a free tool that allows car owners to search for recalls using their vehicle identification number (VIN).
To increase public awareness, other federal agencies also provide online tools to stay on top of product recalls, including:
Consumer retail products: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission lists recall information for children’s products, including clothing and toys, household products and appliances, exercise and sports equipment, outdoor products, and furniture. The CPSC database is searchable by date, product, product category, and company. You can also sign up for alerts in certain product categories. The website is available here:
Self-driving cars are now hitting a few roadways in America, and are showing people just a small glimpse into what could be the future of automobiles. Although Google’s self-driving cars are getting a lot of attention now, the idea of a self-driving car has been around for quite a while actually. These cars have been tested to their limits, but the American people have yet to adopt the technology into their everyday lives. A brief description of their history, how they work, and finally answer the question, will self-driving cars ever be adopted widely by the American public?
Imagine having your life flash before your eyes while you were still wearing diapers. And imagine having a hot hunk of metal crash into you and shatter your sense of everything. When I was just three years old, I was the victim of a very scary car accident. While waiting to make a turn into my nursery school, my mom’s car was rear-ended by a car driving at 50 miles per hour. I remember how incredibly loud the collision was and even how the windows seemed to shiver in their rubber holders. Seeing my mom's head fly back and feeling the car swerve into the opposing traffic, I thought I was going to die. And why did this happen? Because the person driving behind us was texting on her phone and was not focused on the road. All of this, the emotional, physical, and financial damage, and the possibility of losing my mom's or my own life, could have been prevented if the car behind us was a driverless car. Briefly, a driverless car is capable of driving itself via an intricate system of cameras, sensors and computers. I propose that human drivers should be replaced with driverless cars because driverless cars are safer and more efficient.
Driveless cars, are they the future or are they going to be an idea that never succeeds? It is something that everyone is wanting to know and see if it will actually work out. It's 2017 so what more can we ask for than cars that drive themselves? It is a great idea and if it actually works out as planned then it will definitely be one for the books. However, will the driverless cars turn out as plan or will it just be another failed idea and be pushed away to the side? With that, the inventors of the so-called driverless cars seem to be quite confident in there idea and what to prove that they can make it work and sometime in the near future have those cars on the road. The inventors have already spoken on how the driverless cars work and other news sites have spoken on the limitations and issues along with what technology comes with the car to make it driverless and safe.
The driverless cars work all by today’s technology the google car for example needs a (LIDAR) a lidar is used to build a 3D map and it allows the car to see potential hazards or objects by bouncing a laser beam off surfaces surrounding the vehicle to accurately determine the distance of that object. A (RADAR) the radar is hidden in the front bumper with two sensors there and two sensors in the rear this allows the car to avoid impact by sending a warning to the person on board to apply the brakes or to move out of the way when appropriate. (HIGH POWERED CAMERAS) the cameras are mounted to the exterior of the vehicle with a slight separation. This gives the viewer an overlapping view of the cars surroundings and it also looks at the depth and filed of objects around it. Each camera has a 50-degree view and it is accurate to around about 30 meters, which helps in many ways. (SONAR) the sonar is another camera but with a narrow field of view and its range is a lot shorter this camera only goes to about 6 meters. However, it provides
Driverless cars are becoming a very big subject in the U.S. Carmakers such as Volkswagen and General Motors are going to be selling driverless cars in no more than three to four years. Many states have passed the law for driverless cars, and many more states are considering( Tribune News Service). Yes driverless cars are cool and helpful, just think about the car accidents that have happened. Driverless cars are just unsafe and unpredictable.
Google Chauffeur alerts human driver about situations where the human needs to drive, like a toll booth or merge (Pollette).
Currently a driverless car is now considered legally the same as a human driver. But what does that mean? Google's software, not the human passenger, is considered as the "driver". A precedent of the federal court's decision perhaps stemmed from Toyota unintended acceleration that resulted in a class action lawsuit where existing product liability regulations were able to sort who or what is at fault.
As mentioned food recalls are voluntarily actions taken by industries to withdraw products that may be likely to cause possible harms to the public. Food recalls are usually decided on by the manufacturer, the company or in some cases at the request of food safety investigation services. Food recalls have significant economic impacts but also have adverse impacts on public health (Tyco Integrated Security). When a recall is issued by industries, the cost relating to the defective or contaminated products are usually absorbed by the company in terms of addressing; correction; and replacement. Product recalls have potential to severely impact on small companies where as larger companies are able to withstand these short term impacts and very seldom suffer long – term financial consequences (Nath, 2015).
In July 12, The New York Times reported a news: “Inside the self-driving Tesla fatal accident”, which again caused enormous debates on whether self-driving cars should be legal or not.
Companies like Google, Tesla and Nissan, among others, have announced over the past few years that their companies are trying to develop self-driving or autonomous cars [Ref. 1 and 2]. Self-driving cars can provide many benefits to the average consumer. Studies have shown that because computers can react and process information many times faster than a human being, crashes on streets and roads can be decreased with quick and consistent evasion maneuvers by the autonomous car. They can also help maximize fuel economy by calculating the most direct and fastest routes. When the driving of an autonomous car demonstrates that the computer can safely and reliably transport the passengers to their destination, this frees up the passengers to do other things that they would not normally be able to do if they were driving the car manually. For this reason, self-driving cars can help maximize productivity of their passengers.
This paper will explain a product that is recalled, the date it was recalled and the reason it was recalled. It also will explain weather the manufacturer is liable for negligence. It will also explain the relationship with the product that is recalled when it comes to the duty of care, standard of care, breach of the duty of care, Actual injury, proximate injury, and also the defensed to negligence.
The Consumer Product Safety Act states that any company that receives numerous complaints about a products defects must report these claims to the CPSA. According to the CPSA reporting responsibilities belong to manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of consumer products. Each is required to notify the Commission if it obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion that a product fails to comply with a consumer product safety standard or banning regulation. Also if the product contains a defect which could create a substantial product hazard, creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury, or death to the consumer.
Will Google, Apple, Tesla, Uber or lesser known, Comma.ai, come out as the dominant leader in autonomous automotive
For the reasons above I feel that a self-driving car should not be legal, but also more. “Humans excel at pattern recognition, but computer vision can have trouble with it.” This basically means that a human driver has more advantages than a computer system, which is true. This is the way it was intended to be. For example, “the detection of downed power lines, flooded roads, large potholes and road debris, temporary traffic-control devices, fire and smoke on or near the road or other unusual hazards” may not be detected or very difficult to detect for a self-driving
Part II The primary reason for autonomous vehicles is road safety. According to researchers at the University of Michigan, 1.8% of all deaths in America each year are the result of car accidents (Sivak), few of which are the result of a mechanical failure (e.g. broken brake line, tire blowout, etc…). Consequently, a majority of these deaths are a product of driver irresponsibility or incapability. Naturally, self-driving cars would remove the driver factor, yet the experience of a weathered driver is often invaluable.