Dear Google and Tesla Car Manufacturers,
As you may know, self-driving cars have been making its way in the news headlines lately and they have been arousing lots of criticism. Looking back at our childhood memories, we all remember those cool self-driving cars in our favorite cartoons, but what many people are not aware of are the dangers behind them. People nowadays argue about if these autonomous cars should really be on the road or not. Now that self-driving cars are actually becoming a reality, there have been several deaths as a result of them. They shouldn’t be allowed on the road because they take the fun out of driving and aren’t always reliable—everything is becoming modernized or computerized these days which dehumanizes certain activities, such as driving.
From watching the news, thousands of people including myself, are questioning the validity of self-driving cars. Just recently on March 18, Elaine Herzberg, 49, was struck and killed by a Volvo XC90 sport utility
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A recent poll released from AAA, the American Automobile Association, revealed that more than three out of four Americans are afraid of riding in a car with self-driving technology. Another survey showed that 54% of U.S. drivers feel less safe having autonomous cars on the road while a meager 10% would feel safer. As stated by the AAA, “This marked contrast suggests that American drivers are ready to embrace autonomous technology, but they are not yet ready to give up full control” (Detroit Free Press Staff). These statistics prove that autonomous cars are not trusted to be on the road yet. Also, self-driving cars supposedly have the potential to save 30,000 lives every year, but it seems like the opposite is happening--there have been several cases where these cars have caused injuries and even deaths (Fleetwood). So, self-driving cars aren’t ethical and should therefore not be on the
For a while, Self Driving Cars, have never really been a thought, to be thought about in the driving industry. It has always been the regular transportation, like regular cars, trains and other types of transportation for getting around. It was crazy enough to have thought about self driving cars, but now to start to make and produce self driving cars, is even crazier. The question is, is it safe to have these cars on the road? Also what kind of hazards might these vehicles be for people who decide to purchase them? Bob Lutz from (www.cnbc.com) states that “"The autonomous car doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, doesn't text while driving, doesn't get road rage,". This shows that in Bob’s opinion, the self driving car, could be safer than the
Self driving cars are not a good idea because they cause people to be lazy. This means that with self driving cars, your license wouldn’t mean a lot. To put it in another way, the drivers wouldn’t really depend on their license due to the self-driving car. So when you get pulled over by the police, you get a ticket for something the car did.
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?
While there have been surveys to understand how people feel about self-driving vehicles, they only surveyed a little over a thousand, which isn’t comparable to the millions of people who actually drive cars (Degroat). Many, more than 70 percent, do believe that autonomic vehicles will reduce accidents, the severity of the crash, and help the fuel economy, nearly as many are concerned about the way the car will perform under unusual or unexpected circumstances, as compared to the way a human could react and perform, along with if the vehicle would have any system malfunctions (Degroat). Even though the car companies are working on the technology to make the cars safe and dependable, it would be easy for someone to “hack” into the vehicle to steal it, or take personal information from the vehicle like where they have been and where they plan to go (Degroat). Many also wonder how well the car will do under different climate and driving circumstances; will the car’s mechanics and equipment work well in a tropical or artic like environment, or how will it interact in New York City as opposed to a very rural and rugged environment like a farm. With the sensors and cameras attached to the car, will it be able to tell the difference and respond differently among other vehicles, pedestrians, and non-motored objects on the
In source #3 paragraph 4 it says “surveyed people want to ride in cars that protect passengers at all costs-even if the pedestrians would now end up dying.” This is important because the self driving cars create a conflict between society, about who the car could save. Also those surveyed people are in conflict with themselves, trying to decide what outcome could be better. In source #3 paragraph 13 it states “people imagined actually buying a driverless car...people again said pedestrians-protecting cars were more moral...people admitted that they wanted their own car to be programmed to protect its passengers.” This shows when you actually think about the reality of having a driverless car, you wouldn’t want to die in an accident when you could have been saved. As a pedestrian you wouldn’t want to get hit by a car when you could have been saved. There are different perspectives you have to look at. In conclusion this shows that society still isn’t sure about a self-driving
But are they safe? On March 24 2017, an Uber autonomous car was involved with a 3 way crash in Tempe Arizona. With no serious injuries, everyone walked away with a few bruises and cuts from the Uber’s overturned car; but the accident had nothing to do with a “glitch” or a “compilation error” but instead a distracted driver trying to merge and side swiping the Autonomous suv. This and Google’s accident (One of their self driving lexus SUV’s cars drove slowly into a bus {2 mph kek}) have cast a shadow that AV (autonomous vehicles) are “unsafe” and “computers can't do what a human can” that's been dampening their reputation and slowing their development on making them safer, even though, statistically, there 70% more efficient than a human driver.
Technology has advanced so much over the years and it is impressive about how the automobile industry has played such a huge role in the development of technology over the years. One of the most amazing things is the autonomous car, which is important in the safety of people who are driving. The autonomous car is a car that is automatic when it is driving. This does not just mean that it has an automatic transmission. It also means that the car is actually driving itself. That means that it is actually steering the wheel in the directions that it needs to go. That is important because the car would need to know where to turn if it is going to get to where it needs to go and if it is going to be a car that is driving itself. Not only is that
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.
The idea of self-driving vehicles raises many questions and concerns. It is a policy topic that has implications for numerous policy areas such as health, privacy, environment and urban planning, economic growth, security, and accessibility. For each of the policy areas that it will affect there will be some support for it through it’s advantages as well as some criticisms from it’s disadvantages. Starting with the healthcare sector, there has been various arguments in support for automated vehicles. One of the advantages is healthcare will be positively revolutionized, meaning with automated vehicles, it is expected to result in fewer injuries and lower costs.
Self-driving cars are the wave of the future. There is much debate regarding the impact a self-driving car will have on our society and economy. Some experts believe fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road in the next 5-10 years (Anderson). This means a vehicle will be able to drive on the road without a driver or any passengers. Like any groundbreaking technology, there is a fear of the unforeseen problems. Therefore, there will need to be extensive testing before anyone can feel safe with a vehicle of this style on the road. It will also take time for this type of technology to become financially accessible to the masses, but again alike any technology with time it should be possible. Once the safety concern has been fully addressed
These self-driving cars aren’t the future; they’re here now, and they work. One example of these self-driving cars is Google’s driverless car designs; they’ve driven up and down the California coast for hundreds of thousands of miles, with the only accidents being caused by humans. Google’s self-driving cars don’t need to be perfect, either; they just need to be better than humans. In the United States alone, humans kill over forty-thousand people every year.
Self- Driving cars have the potential to be on the roads in a few years. There still some concerns about the legal side of this technological advancement. The current legal framework will make companies fear the idea to start producing self-driving cars. They fear that they will be said to have liability for the crash, a person getting injured in one of their cars and saying they caused it, and when the legal hurdles will be announced so that companies can finish the technology and make it so that it fits the legal standards.
It might be hard to see where the self-driving car could have issues with safety but an interesting question arises when an accident is unavoidable. The question posed is “How should the car be programmed to act in the event of an unavoidable accident? Should it minimize the loss of life, even if it means sacrificing the occupants, or should it protect the occupants at all costs? Should it choose between these extremes at random?” (ArXiv). This is a very interesting question surrounding ethics. I’m not sure if there is a right answer to the question, which could stall the self-driving car industry. Before self-driving cars are mass produced a solution needs to be found to the question about unavoidable accidents. Although this question is a problem, there may not be a need to address the problem. It is said that “"driver error is believed to be the main reason behind over 90 percent of all crashes" with drunk driving, distracted drivers, failure to remain in one lane and falling to yield the right of way the main causes.” (Keating). Self-driving cars could eliminate those problems entirely and maybe with all cars on the road being self-driving cars, there would be no “unavoidable accidents”. Safety is the main issue the self-driving car is trying to solve in transportation and seems to do a good job at
Self-driving cars should not be on the road because they come with many dangerous factors, disadvantages, and with all these dangers and disadvantages, they may not be as great as they are brought up to be. There are dangerous factors that come with having a computer control a car rather
Automotive executives touting self-driving cars as a way to make commuting more productive or relaxing may want to consider another potential marketing pitch: safety (Hirschauge, 2016). The biggest reason why these cars will make a safer world is that accident rates will enormously drop. There is a lot of bad behavior a driver exhibit behind the wheel, and a computer is actually an ideal motorist. Since 81 percent of car crashes are the result of human error, computers would take a lot of danger out of the equation entirely. Also, some of the major causes of accidents are drivers who become ill at the time of driving. Some of the examples of this would be a seizure, heart attack, diabetic reactions, fainting, and high or low blood pressure. Autonomous cars will surely remedy these types of occurrences making us