Are Driverless Cars Dangerous

Autopilot or Deathmachine?

The idea of taking your hands off the staring wheel and your feet off the pedals is scary and may seem outrageous.  But like it or not autopilot for cars is coming and it may be here to stay.  A car that can drive you might be a great idea for people who are blind and can not drive but to blindly trust a computer to take you from point A to point B may seem to be insane.  Most people don't even trust Siri to get them reliable information let alone put your life in the hands of a computer.  Most car companies with this technology still require a driver to sit behind the wheel and be ready at a moments notice to take back control of the car.  But as our lives get busier some people will see their car ride to work as an opportunity to sleep or get more work done.   This means that there will be a fatal accident in the future and if so who takes responsibility for the death because you can not imprison a car if it killed the driver, a pedestrian, or another driver.  This poses a legality and ethical issue, should the driver take responsibility or the car company.  Also, what would happen in a situation where a collision in unavoidable would the car move onto the sidewalk endangering pedestrians lives to save the drivers or would it move forward to hit the car in front of it.  A computer is a series of on and off switches, these on and off switches tells a computer to do as it is programmed.  A human does not work in binary but rather uses its senses to determine what is near and far and whether or not to start breaking.  As humans, we are often faulted and distracted with our phones or are impaired by alcohol.  We kill others or even ourselves driving every day.  We are not perfect but we possess the one thing that no computer can be programmed with, that is the survival instinct.  Humans are able to protect themselves and are hardwired with or fight or flight response.  This allows us to consider possible options and play them out in our head and choose the best path that would keep us alive.  I do not think that people are ready to give up the freedom of getting behind the wheel and choosing where you want to go and how you want to get there.  Since the invention of the car, it has been a symbol of independence and that you were able to travel where you wanted and when you wanted.  But as we may come accustomed to not driving.  We may become a nation too dependent on technology and if something were to happen to it people might not know how to drive.  We may become the last generation to have our drivers licence as the next generation may grow up with self-driving cars. 

      The self-driving car works by using sensors around the car which allows the car to see every angle.  The car will analyze the car in front, behind and on the sides to make a decision on what to do, how close to follow the car ahead, and whether or not to apply the brake.  This is greatly used in all of Tesla's cars as a standard feature.  Google and Apple are also looking into a driverless cars but so far all the cars must have a driver in the driver's seat ready to take control if the need arises.  The growth of automatic braking can be seen as the first beta testing of this technology as many cars now offer this service.  This would allow the car to automatically apply the break even if the driver did not,  This would mean that the car may decide that it needs to stop immediately or if a car was applied to be hacked it would be able to stop many drivers and cause traffic jams and or deaths.  It is known that cars can be hacked just like normal computers.  so a totally automated car could allow someone behind a computer could gain total control of the car and make it go anywhere he wants it to go.    

Apple's self driving car prototype

Google's self driving car design

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