Have you ever watched “Back to the future”? They predicted that in 2015 we will have flying, driverless cars. For flying cars we will have to wait a bit more, but today I will focus on something which already exists: autonomous vehicles and if we people are ready for them.
In the media there is a big discussion whether autonomous cars will make our lives easier and safer, or there will be more accidents because the system will fail. Additionally, there are many voices of people, which are just scared of losing control over the car.
What is an autonomous car?
Seemingly ordinary car, but when you step inside it, it starts to be extraordinary. There is no wheel, no pedals, you have 5 passengers seats. It is remotely connected and automated vehicle. But besides typical equipment of car you can find a AI system which is programmed to arrive to destination you put into your GPS and being thought the speed limit, road signs and many maneuvers which are possible during driving a car, as well as many cameras so car can watch the surroundings and be prepare to drive once the conditions change. Moreover, the design of the car is also very streamlined and modern.
Pros
- Safe for you and surroundings around, because using data autonomous cars can predict human behaviors as well as the machine will not answer the phone, which could distract the driver at any moment
- Comfort, in an autonomous car, the driver can read a book, check news from around the world or reply to an email.
- Autonomous cars are economical and careful
- Autonomous metro in many cities around the world has been standard for years
- The car can really quickly change and adapt to the weather (rain, snow)
- Electric cars → eco-friendly, no emission of CO2
- People get tired, their vigilance and concentration are distracted, they use smartphones, make calls, listen to music, think about private or business matters, get nervous when they stand in traffic jams, they get nervous when they cannot find a parking space, and in addition they simply have worse or better days.
- Autonomous cars are thought patterns in traffic or in between car interaction and they will reduce traffic when every car will be autonomous
- Creating new jobs (people who will be working on creating AV)
Cons
- AI will never have emotions or imagination like humans
- Some technical errors → human can react really fast, and system might fail
- Unregulated Industry (who will be responsible for the disaster)
- Job loss in the transport industry (Uber, taxi, delivery people)
- Really high costs of cars
- No entertainment for people who like to drive, because there is a lot of people who likes to drive a car, and this makes them relaxed
- Accident on the highway and it will try to avoid it, but it will not see the car which is speeding
- Hackers can hack your car
- Not enough accurate data, which will teach a machine to learn human behaviors
- More cars, and possibility of disappearing public transport in the future
- Not many charging stations
Why don’t we want to drive autonomous cars?
Firstly, we are afraid to give up a control. Many people struggle when they cannot control everything, and there is a car where you do not need to do anything just set up the GPS and go.
Secondly, we do not trust it with our lives and our family. It is a big scare factor for humans. We think that machine cannot make a choice for us to save us.
And last but not least we fear from unknown. This is something new for most of us, we do not fully know it, we cannot fully accept and give the control to the machine. But I would like to leave you with one important question: What would your great grand parents say, if you would tell them that you took money out of the wall?
Resources:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/428639/reasons-why-us-drivers-are-likely-to-purchase-a-fully-autonomous-car/
https://www.bosch.com/stories/economic-impact-of-self-driving-cars/
https://www.driverlessguru.com/self-driving-cars-facts-and-figures
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/14/21063487/self-driving-cars-autonomous-vehicles-waymo-cruise-uber
The way I see it now, as the technology is still developing, the safest and easiest (not the cheapest though) way of implementing autonomous cars is changing the whole system so that we have only AV on the roads. The threat for autonomous cars is one- human’s impredictibility. If we eliminate human factor (scary), autonomous cars would be safe to drive around.
We could also work on implementing solutions such as LA underground transportation system ( http://techblog.kozminski.edu.pl/2020/12/17/plans-for-a-new-underground-transportation-system/)
There is such negative consequence as job lose for many millions taxi and truck drivers.Yes, such technology can save huge amount of money, but many people will be left without their job and there could be an increased rate of criminal suicide.
I think this is a good idea, but it for sure needs more and more research and work. Personally I love driving a car and I can relax while doing it. I don’t know how many researches have been done already, but for now I don’t think many people will be willing to buy them. Being hacked is really scary thought and that’s the only thing I think about it when I read this article, but I don’t cross out this idea. It can be very helpful and convenient in the future.
The idea of autonomous cars is probably the best solution for avoiding car accidents. Nevertheless, many people treat driving as some kind of relax and they won’t be so willing to abandon it. And the idea of being hacked while driving is a bit scary…