Thursday 23 April 2015

Driverless Cars

There has been a lot of talk recently about a potentially driverless future, a time to come in which all of our cars will be fitted with the highest-grade computer A.I. systems that will allow riders to relax in the back doing as they please while they are driven around by a robot. It may seem as if the only arguments against self-driving cars come from two kinds of people – those fearful of any scenario where they might have to forgo control behind the wheel and those who distrust all technology out of hand. Lolling about while a computer gets you through traffic has its attractions for many of us and there has been little discussion about the potential downsides of a driverless future. However, there are studies which have focused on discovering the potential flaws in this utopia.

The upsides to this system are pretty evident. The first advantage of driverless cars is one of multitasking. While being taken from here to there in a driverless car, you can do anything you want. Eat, sleep, work, chat with relatives – commute time is no longer down time. The second advantage to this system is safety. Not all humans are typically the best drivers, and so having all of the A.I. cars drive at the same level it would allow the developers to create a quite high level of safety. By leaving the driving to a whole slew of computers, sensors, servos and software, getting from home to office should be rendered accident free.

The dangers of these cars however include the fact that they can potentially act a lot like robots with having very strict go-and-stop procedures, creating a very tense looking rigidy way of driving. The second big danger is the fact that pedestrians, animals, busses, etc. exist and they will not always be picked up by sensors. It will be up to the user to override and make a life-or-death decision.

In the end, I like the idea of driverless cars however it will need to be worked on heavily.


No comments:

Post a Comment