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.
The company has no way of defending against a claim that they were liable for a crash. People are afraid of these malfunctions so that they want to rely on their own driving more than a machine’s control of the reaction
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Schellekens also states “The first formulation is less strict than the second one. It does not mean that no accident will happen that a good human driver could have avoided” (510). This basically means that there will be fewer wrecks and none of them being very severe.
The biggest hurdle for developers is not technology but rather something not technological, politicians. “Recently, Volvo’s CEO Håkan Samuelsson announced in a press release that he believes that regulatory rather than technological hurdles are the biggest barriers to moving forward with self-driving tech” (Brodsky 7). Even though there is nothing specifying anything is illegal with self-driving cars people are still worried about the legal side of things. According to a study that a legal student named Bryan Walker Smith conducted “Smith concludes that the Geneva Convention creates an obligation that vehicles be controlled, but such control requirements may be satisfied “if a human is able to intervene in operation of a vehicle” or “if that vehicle operates within the bounds of human judgment” (Brodsky 8). People have been doing much debating and discussion about the sufficiency of the existing laws. “John Villasenor, a professor of electrical engineering and public policy at UCLA, writes that “existing tort and contract law frameworks are generally very well equipped
Who’s to blame when the vehicle gets in a severe car accident? Advances in technology, like self-driving cars, will be bad because it causes people to be lazy, it takes away the responsibility of the driver, it takes away the responsibility of the driver, and it can malfunction causing accidents.
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?
Finally, if an accident were to occur involving a self-driving car, the question of “who is responsible” is raised. This is a difficult question that needs to be addressed with laws that govern liability in these situations.
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
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
All of a sudden the self driving car crashes into another car while passing the truck. Avoiding the accident would’ve been possible but the car failed to notice on coming traffic with the truck blocking the view and hearing the cars engine. There would have to be lots of tests to determine whether or not the car is safe and who’s to blame for the accidents. When owning a self driving car, you want to avoid the stress of rushing to school in traffic and would like to be able to talk on the phone. If the car still requires eyes on the road is it really worth it to rely your life to a car with computer programming or is it better being in full control of the cars actions. Car companies and manufactures would have to bring laws in which avoid the consumer blaming the cars malfunctions due to a failed sensor. As the seller of the car you want to protect yourself as much as you can to be liable of the car accidents and malfunctions. Before putting the car on the market making sure the car functions properly because its controlling whether or not the customer is
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.
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
Technology is evolving faster than ever these days, however there is one technology that could revolutionize the transportation industry. This technology is called autonomous cars, also known as self-driving cars. Autonomous cars can be defined as a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment, and navigating without human input. Using different techniques such as GPS and radar, autonomous cars can detect surroundings, thus removing the human element in driving. This would have a positive effect in more ways than we could ever imagine. Research suggests that self-driving cars will become more abundant in the future because they will be more cost-effective, enhance safety, and decrease traffic congestion.
Self-Driving Cars – are they dangerous? (Image Courtesy: Popular Mechanics) The concept of self-driving car has been under exploration, development, tweaking, and redevelopment now for more than a decade. The moot question asked both by the automobile engineers & designers and the technology researchers & inventors. Is that “whether self-driving cars are still a thing of the future or they are a usable technology of today?”
To achieve the level of trust required to make a self-driving car legal, they must first be well tested in labs and on roads. However, if self-driving cars are allowed to be test driven on road, they must be legal on public roads. Presently, this is not an issue, since companies like Tesla Motors and Volvo have self-driving cars on the road today, but, if they are not proven reliable quickly, companies run the risk of endangering the legality of self-driving
Having a car that is fully controlled by technology will be a target for hackers. For example, as a demonstration two people by the name of Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek were able to completely stop a jeep that was on the highway by hacking its internet connection. Another example showing how large the hurdle for protecting self-driving cars is that security researches at the University of Washington were able to confuse a self-driving car just by placing a sticker on something like a stop sign, which made the vehicle think it was a speed limit sign. Knowing how easy it is for a hacker to jeopardize the safety of the passengers of a self-driving cars further measures must be taken by the companies that are developing them to increase their security before they are open to the
SCREAM. Their hearts shudder with trepidation. This is what happened between a self-driving car, a human-driven car, and one innocent human at a car accident of four miles per hour. Ever since the idea evolved in the 1920s, self-driving cars have been always admired — a robot driving your automobile. Now, in 2017, the U. S. government has been in the process of
Who would of ever thought a self-driving car would become a reality, but in this day and time it is. The world we live in is pushing further and further toward technology, which in some ways it is helpful but others I feel can cause issues that should never be the cause. In this situation, it is a self-driving car. The thought of a car driving without a human having any control, scares the living daylights out of me, doesn’t seem safe at all, and in my opinion quite honestly should not be able to be legal for multiple reasons.
Car manufacturers are thinking of a way to design a car that does not rely on human interaction: “This system, they hope, will eliminate the human error behind the vast majority of accidents and ease congestion in crowded cities” (Baker). Self-driving cars could potentially erase the number of deaths caused by car accidents entirely. Currently however, many people do not trust these fully robotic vehicles with their life. The main problem with self-driving vehicles is that