Currently, the number of people who die each year in car accidents is equivalent to the death total if a 737 plane was to fall out of the sky every hour (newnrhri). For some reason, deaths from car accidents are not as alarming as a plane dropping from the sky, but the numbers match up. Society must find a way to decrease the amount of people who die on the road each year, and society has found a solution in autonomous vehicles. There are currently 2,309 patent filings for autonomous driving technology (oeihwfhd), and that number will continue to increase until the technology is perfected. Although the future use of self-driving cars is uncertain, the technology is here and should be embraced rather than feared. Granted, self-driving cars …show more content…
Because our roadways are not fully autonomous, we can not reap the full benefits of the technology. When autonomous vehicles share the road with vehicles driven by humans the number of accidents increases because “human drivers seem to hit self-driving cars twice as often as regular vehicles, according to a University of Michigan study in October 2015” (Self-Driving Cars Are Not As Safe As Vehicles Operated by Human Drivers). Autonomous vehicles rely heavily on computer technology, which opens the door for hackers. In 2015, hackers “took control of a Jeep Cherokee's UConnect system, an internet-connected computer feature. . . From a couch 10 miles west of the highway, the [hackers] were able to toy with the car's air conditioning, blast the radio, activate the windshield wipers, and ultimately cut its transmission” (ksdkbjfsjdd). Additionally, the use of computer technology can create confusion for the computers and situations in which autonomous vehicles cannot function properly. If a stop light is not working or “In the event of an accident, for example, where a police officer is directing traffic, the cars cannot interpret human signals”
The term autonomous refers to the capability of acting independently, or having the freedom to do so. A self-driving car is an autonomous car, which has the ability to sense its environment and navigating without any human operations. These types of cars are built to make safe and smart decisions on the road. In the past years, automobile companies have begun to introduce advanced driver assistance systems that are capable of parking, switching lanes, and braking in case of an emergency on their own, without the driver’s assistance. Automated vehicles are capable of maneuvering through street traffic, as well as other natural and man-made obstacles along the way. Therefore, this technology might completely change the methods of transportation.
The goals behind self-driving cars are to decrease collisions, traffic jams and the use of gas and harmful pollutants. The autonomous automobile is able to maneuver around objects and create swift lines of cars on roadways (How Google’s self-Driving Car Works, 2011). The autonomous vehicle can react faster than humans can, meaning less accidents and the potential to save thousands of lives. Another purpose and vision for these cars is that vehicles would become a shared resource. When someone needed a car, he or she could just use his or her Smartphone and a self-sufficient car would drive up and pick him or her up.
Google Chauffeur alerts human driver about situations where the human needs to drive, like a toll booth or merge (Pollette).
You are sitting in the backseat of your driverless car without a care in the world, watching netflix and enjoying your favorite assortment of snacks and beverages. All of a sudden your car goes from the speed limit to full throttle in one jolt and take off down the freeway. The car is not designed to go this fast and the other cars do not have time to react. Is this really what you want in a truly driverless car, having no control over the situation and putting your life in the hands of autonomic machine? Driverless cars should not be introduced to the common public because of deadly errors in the cars system, problems with the laws and regulations, and the role humans play in these cars.
They once seemed preposterous, the things of science fiction movies and comic books detailing a utopian society of some sort. Yet here they are, on the streets, their existance no longer a distant fantasy but a very real issue in the world today. Self-driving cars are finally a reality. With this reality, however, comes questions.
Often, people say that to drive, you need both hands on the steering wheel . They also say that you should not use your cell phone when you’re driving. That’s ending right now!!!
Millions of people die due to road accidents every year. These deaths are caused by human error, due to the driver either being distracted or taking unnecessary risks. The only way to ensure that people will be safe on the road is to remove human drivers. Autonomous cars would be the most beneficial route because they are cost-efficient and safe. Human drivers should be outlawed in the future due to distracted, risky driving, thus making autonomous cars more advantageous.
In my essay, I’m planning on writing about self-driving cars. The moral issue I want to focus on is the idea of artificial intelligence replacing human drivers. This identifies as a moral issue because we place our safety in the hands of the artificial intelligence that supposedly reduce human error. This issue is important to an engineer considering the group that is implementing this AI to help keep drivers safe and the possible risks they will face of the consequences if things take a wrong turn. In the public eyes, there would be some criticizing self-driving cars as unsafe and there will be those who are willing to try them.
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.
Government statistics show that human mistakes are responsible for most of the 33,000 traffic fatalities each year. Autonomous cars won't get drowsy, distracted, or drunk. So they can eliminate those mistakes and save an estimated 31,000 lives a year. But a small accident involving google's autonomous lexus and a public bus shows that driverless cars that drive themselves can make mistakes. If autonomous cars are the answer to reducing accidents, they'll first have to gain the public's trust.
Did you know that we could be saving over 160 billion dollars on gas and time wasted on traffic if we switched over to self driving cars? Self driving cars could be the future of our cars, because we will pay less for thing we usually buy for the cars, we could save time to our destination, and we will send less people to the emergency room. First off, we will pay less for things we usually buy for our cars. Self driving cars may be electric which you will save money on by not buying gas instead by using electric, we already spend way too much money on gas so if we have the electric cars it would be cheaper. (USAToday, 2016)
Self driving cars are making more and more strides to come into reality. Even some of the top brands are coming out with them. Google even has it’s own self driving car brand Waymo! Some say that these cars shouldn’t be allowed on the streets, but the positives about them outweigh by a lot. Some of the positives that come with these cars are they are safe, they save money, and they give you a better living standard.
Self driving cars were once thought to be a very advanced car. In today's age, they are rarely seen and used in communities. People with disabilities would benefit from these vehicles due to their flexibility. It will provide freedom for individuals who need assistance in their everyday lives. Self driving cars should be the norm and not the exception to the public for the reason that they are safer than the average car, and there are also other reasons people rarely consider.
As Adam Rogers explains in his Wired Magazine article “Getting There,” driverless transportation is not a novel concept. Instead, its idealistic implications have been omnipresent in the minds of inventors and traffic engineers for more than seventy years (Rogers 76). But it is only now, with the gradual augmentation of technology and changes predicted by Moore’s Law that we have gained the ability to create such vehicles. The Trends E-Magazine article titled “Driverless Cars: Coming to Your Streets Sooner Than You Think,” further examines the factors contributing to the rise and foreseeable overhaul of the highways by autonomous cars, attributing their growth to three central factors. First, as technology becomes increasingly intertwined with
The implementation of self-driving cars in modern society will create threats to the safety of human drivers as well as pedestrians. Companies such as Uber, Tesla, and Volvo have begun to test their autonomous cars over the past decade. They have been in the spotlight more often over the past two years as the technology is quickly advancing and the cars are becoming available for public use. Recently, the majority of the headlines have been negative, most of which dealing with fatalities of the operators. Recently reported by The New York Times, Elaine Herzberg, a 49 year old resident of Arizona, was hit by a Volvo XC90 car while walking her bike across the road.