Driverless Cars - Why are they dangerous?
Isaac Assimov wrote Sally, a short story about cars that didn't need human drivers. Well, Isaac predicted it correct, such cars are on their way and will rush the roads soon.
We drive cars everyday. While driving, one thing that we must make sure of is our Focus. Diverting our attention can lead to accidents - like, you were driving a car, suddenly you got a phone call and your attention diverted to the call. The car next to you stopped and you just popped straight into it.
You could have prevented the accident only if you had your mind focused. But this is not very simple. Driver error is the major cause of road accidents and avoiding it is almost as hard as avoiding cars (yeah, going back to the old gold days).
So, instead of avoiding the error what the researchers did is deprive the driver of its powers. This laid the birthstone of autonomous cars.
Autonomous Cars
Autonomous cars eliminate the driver error by concentrating themselves. The driver just sits behind the wheel and enjoys the ride. These cars contain complex systems that allow the car to drive itself.
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The parking strategy - Taken from www.howstuffworks.com
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How far away are we?
- In August 2012, Google announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles (500,000 km) accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs.
- Four U.S. states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars as of December 2013: Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan.
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Blue areas indicate the U.S. states who have permitted autonomous cars.
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- In April 2014, the team announced that their vehicles have now logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles (1.1 million km).
- In late May 2014, Google revealed a new prototype of its driverless car, which had no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brakes, being 100% autonomous.
What's good?
- You can enjoy watching around while the autonomous car takes the control.
- You can talk, chat, use facebook, twitter and do all kinds of stuff which you can't do while driving.
- These driving tests, which you have to take before taking your ride to the streets, the can be avoided if you plan to drive an autonomous car.
- If you are getting bored, the car welcomes you. Put your hands on the steering and drive yourself.
What makes it a headache?
- There are some inevitable legal headaches. Who would be responsible if something bad does happen? There will still be road accidents, and even the smartest smart car will occasionally make a mistake or be forced into making a decision. Imagine a scenario in which someone dashes out in front of a robot car. Continue and man dies. Swerve and a different man dies. Stop suddenly and the passenger in the car behind dies. How would it decide? It’s like those undergraduate philosophy exams involving trains and people tied on railway tracks. We may be terrible drivers, but at least we are responsible for our terrible driving.
- In the end, it's likely that the emotional fear of giving a little more power to the machines will be the most difficult hurdle of all.
- Privacy will be another big concern. The various sensors and in-car systems can collect data about driving patterns and locations and save that data in the cloud. The idea is to use this information to assist the driver, say updating a car's route based on real-time mapping information. If this information get's leaked, there could be serious consequences.
- Hackers can jam the car systems and cause road accidents whenever and wherever they please.
- The early autonomous technology will have many bugs. While using windows you often come across bugs. They make your computer act weird. What if your car starts acting weird all of sudden? These bugs can cause some serious accidents.
Will the public want them?
As cars pile on more advanced automated technology, it becomes clear they fit into the Consumer Electronics Show as much as the typical car show. They are moving beyond just being cars.
But the decision of buying the car is totally upon the public. A person who loves the art of driving won't bother buying an autonomous car.
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