Autonomous self-driving cars are often viewed as the future for human transportation. Currently, there aren’t many of these cars on public roadways due to the underlying development and innovation needed, that would make them safe for everyone once incorporated on the road. There are controversies regarding the legal status, safety, and technology pertaining the idea of self driving cars. Hence further research is needed to improve the safety aspects such as autonomous control which reduce car accidents, and remedying the costs of liabilities through legal framework and the industrial competitiveness between companies would overall benefit universities. To begin with, the first controversy is whether or not the self driving cars are legal. …show more content…
There is still an ongoing debate on what feature would the driver have to control and what features would be self automated. Certain tasks require a highly efficient mechanism that won’t fail since one slight mistake can cause a car accident, such as a brake or steering failure caused by the autonomous vehicle. Luckily, as this industry is developing there has to be rules and regulations set in place to promote the safety of using these vehicles that will one day be used by university students. Currently there is Self-Drive Act that has been introduced into congress that creates a federal regulation as expressed in the text “the SELF-DRIVE Act, lays out a basic Federal framework for autonomous vehicle regulation,” (Marshall). This act allows for the Federal government to regulate and promote the production of standard-met safe self driving cars. Reducing the amount of systematic error caused car accidents in university parking lot from defective and unregulated autonomous cars. It’s difficult to currently pinpoint the cause behind a self driving car accident since it is unclear on what feature will actually be self automated and wouldn’t require any control by the …show more content…
Accidents are caused most often due to driver error as supported by the text “more often than not drivers themselves are the most dangerous things about hitting the open road.” (Top 20 Pros and Cons Associated with Self-Driving Cars). If the autonomous system is used, then the accidents caused by driver error would be greatly reduced. This is why additional research is required, since the act is currently going through congress and requires additional research to set actual safety standards on what must be done in order for these cars to be used on the road. Since it still hasn’t been passed it is possible that a few autonomous cars can legally hit the streets without meeting safety standards, for example “could allow for as many as 100,000 such vehicles a year to be exempted from safety standards while the technology is developing.” (Spangler). This technology is very modernistic so it is still not fully developed to guarantee safety of all its users. Conflict is caused by this, since it would potentially cause several car accidents since the technology is still developing and not set for general consumer use. Thankfully the work of universities and academia has contributed by providing plentiful research to improve these vehicles as expressed in this line “But the rapid acceleration of the technology would not be possible
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
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.
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.
Driverless cars do hold potential in reducing the amount of accidents on the road. One article states that human mistakes make up more than 90 percent of car accidents and that no matter what problems the autonomous vehicle (AV) possesses, it will still reduce this percentage (Ackerman 3). Humans sometimes make blunders that create an accident
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 produced because the technical part is not 100% figured out. In source #1 paragraph 23, it says “Computers develop glitches… could be deadly when it happens at 75 miles per hour on the freeway.” This is important because being in an accident on a freeway could lead to deadly injuries. When you might have been able to prevent that, when you were the driver. The self-driving car is what caused your injury so not having control could be a fatal technical
People around the world are constantly moving from place to place. Whether that place is work, a restaurant, or home, people require a means of transportation in order to arrive at a desired destination safely and efficiently. One of the most used means of transportation today are cars. Cars play an important role in the world’s economy by transporting goods and people. Automobiles have come a long way since Ford’s first Model T, and the auto industry plans to further enhance the technology and capabilities of the cars that drive on our roads. New technological advancements like rear-view camera, self parking, and auto braking have greatly improved the overall safety of cars today. However, one of the most talked about ideas are autonomous
Usually, the opponents would hold such opinion: “There are potential for self-driving cars to go wrong”. Like reported in that news, the Tesla self-driving car went wrong, then hit a fence, caused the death of the driver. All software would appear errors, like errors which would appear in our operating systems, errors are possible to appear in the self-driving systems. What’s more, in the real world, there are thousands upon thousands situation would happen.
There are many distracted or impaired drivers on the road which neither would be the case with a self-driving car. According to, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Alcohol impaired driving accounted for 31% of auto accident fatalities in 2013 (NTSA 3). Therefore, Self-driving vehicles would essentially eliminate or at the very least dramatically reduce this statistic, saving many lives each year. It is like having a designated driver built into your vehicle.
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
Human decisions are starting to become mute and futile in the car. Human lives are now being placed entirely in the “hands” of computers: a quite discomforting thought for some. For this reason, as self-driving car innovations are being made, many ethical concerns and issues are also arising. However, the fact stands that self-driving vehicles are the way of the future and, most importantly, a way to save lives and help the environment. First, self-driving vehicles significantly decrease the likelihood of accidents and the endangerment of public safety.
After reading the article I have concluded that the idea of self-driving cars sounds more so than ever like a plausible reality rather than another eccentric sci-fi topic. Aside from morality and subjective perceptions on the practice of self-driving cars I believe that the most major problem would the financial effect self-driving cars can have on America's financial infrastructure. The implementation of self-driving cars would almost quickly eliminate millions of jobs that would be made obsolete, unemployment rates would rise exponentially but that's not where the obstacles stop. Although this was not mentioned on the cons list it was hinted at. Self-driving cars have little to no security measures so that begs to question as to how software developers will combat hackers and software
An additional point of consideration will be the public reaction to proposed algorithms. As one of the desirable, if not most desirable, aspects fuelling the development of self-driving cars is their great potential for significantly reducing the amount of injury and death on the roads, we need to factor the opinions of potential consumers into the ethical mix. That is, if we propose an algorithm that will sacrifice the occupant of a self-driving car so as to protect a greater number of wayward pedestrians, we would likely see people unwilling to buy or travel in self-driving cars, thus negating the goal of self-driving vehicle proponents. Thus, it is clear that once we begin to scratch the surface of the question as to how we ought to program self-driving cars to respond to accidents, the question is more complex and multi-faceted that might be anticipated. Subsequently, given the goals of companies such as Google, to see such vehicles on the road in the near future, it is of great importance that we begin to deal with the associated ethical problems as soon as
My first assertion for why we should allow self-driving cars in the United States is that they decrease human error. By using self-driving cars, there will be less drunk driving incidents, as the car will be driving, not the human. This will be safer for everyone on the road. In the article, “Human Error as a Cause of Vehicle Crashes (Stanford. Edu),” on the Stanford Law School website, Bryant Walker Smith wrote. “Some ninety percent of motor vehicle crashes are caused at least in part by human error.” Additionally, driverless cars could save about $190 billion in damages and
Self-Driving cars are no longer a figment of science fiction. This innovated technology has been in the testing stages for some time, but recently people have been wondering, “How much will automated cars really benefit our lives?” It’s obvious that self-driving cars will help reduce traffic wrecks and death caused by human error, but what’s not so obvious is the side effects of introducing these cars. It’s predicted that they will cause a decline in our economy, as well as an increase in driver disengagement. Although self-driving cars will help road safety conditions, they should not be introduced to the general public due to the major problems that can domino from their release.