On March 23, 2016 The Dallas Morning News published an editorial called "Don't be afraid of our self-driving-car future". The company Google has released 56 self-driving cars to test on the streets of Mountain View, CA, Austin, TX and Kirkland, WA. At first the idea of self-driving cars was a bit scary... actually a lot scary. The idea would take a lot of thinking about and getting use to, but overall it seems pretty great. With a car that can operate normally without anyone in control you can do a lot. A person can "get that time back to read, email, text or even snooze — all without breaking the law." That honestly sounds wonderful, especially because I hate driving.
A few pros of having a self-driving car: (1) Mass time savings from fewer cars stopping-and-going along the highway, (2) Mass fuel savings from those smoother starts and stops, (3) Speed-limit adherence from a computer-controlled engine. It is also possible that car insurance rates would fall, and how wouldn't that be a dream come true? If we have a computer-controlled car, then human error would be subtracted from the equation, meaning less worries for insurance companies. According to the editorial, "human error is responsible for 94 percent of our 33,000 annual traffic fatalities." Therefore, putting computers in control of the wheel is a great idea.
Even though some people are totally in love with this new idea of self-driving cars, others are not completely convinced yet. Some people do not believe that a computer can fully understand the concept of driving. Even with these doubts, Google’s goal is to have cars to market by the end of 2019. Will enough of us have enough confidence by then? The Dallas Morning News advice: " Just input your destination, sit back and relax. Let the future come to you."
2 comments:
I appreciate the honesty about hating to drive, Jennifer. Your commentary about Googles self-driving cars was well done, but there are many other things to consider. What about people like me that love driving? I bought a powerful, beautiful handling machine because I adore driving. Having gone through several specialized offensive and defensive driving courses and no record of accidents, I take driving as a joyful hobby. That being said, If I had to give that up in order to keep everyone safer, I'd like to think I would make that sacrifice. The self-driving Google vehicles also just had there first accident, but Google claims it is as simple as fixing the algorithm they created. If that is indeed the case, I think they are well on their way to making the roads safer for everyone, but it's hard not to think about the Terminator movies where Skynet's automated robot's and vehicles take over the world. Far fetched but fun to consider. Thanks for the information, this is a current topic with many future implications so it's nice to stay apprised.
I have to agree with Jennifer in her blog, self driving cars can very helpful. They can be a great help for those who like you said, don't like to drive and for those who are very adventurous and want to let a computer-control engine be in control of their lives. However there are serious cons to this idea, such as, a problem that this self driving cars have already faced. The problem of swerving into oncoming traffic or running a person over. in a situation like this where a human life is at risk, do you think that a computer or machine has the capacity to make the right decision? Or the decision that we will take in a situation like that? Who would we blame then the car for not knowing better or our selves for letting a computer controlled engine make that decision for us? The idea is great, but there is some serious problems that will stop me from getting one of this cars. http://texasandlocalgov.blogspot.com/2016/04/agree-or-disagree.html
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