Working in the marketing department of MicksGarage naturally involves reading about the latest developments in the motor industry. In
recent times there has been an increase in the number of articles relating to news about self-driving cars. You may think that it’s inevitable that all cars will be
self-driving in the future especially with companies like Google involved, but it's far too dangerous. In fact, for it to work, these cars would need a
heart.
First, let’s look at the traffic implications, self-driving cars
may actually lead to more traffic. As driving becomes easier and more
convenient, people tend to live further away from work and cities. Take
motorways for example, they made longer commutes to work far more bearable. It
opened up the countryside for people looking for the dream house in the
countryside and consequently caused more traffic especially in what used to be
quiet countryside villages.
Why would a car need a heart? The technology in these cars is never going to be
perfect and it needs to be. There is no way to fully encode a piece of
software to think or function like a human brain. Can software be programmed to
make moral decisions in the event of an imminent crash? Could it make the
decision to swerve to avoid hitting a child and hit something else? Who knows
what a computer would do in a situation like that. If you have watched the movie i, Robot then you will remember Will Smith (Detective Del Spooner) pointing to his heart
and saying “nothing here, just lights and clockwork” after one of the NS-5 robots
rescued him instead of an 11 year old girl after a car accident.
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| The Self-Driving Car that Features in the i,Robot Movie |
What about a compromise between self-driving cars where a
human could get involved and override the car if needs be? Ok, but would a
human be vigilant enough in a situation like this to react in time? It’s doubtful,
considering the amount of drivers who still fall asleep at the wheel. I think
the companies who are building these robotic cars should start working closely
with some lawyers. Driving is probably one of the most dangerous things we do
every day, I would rather see more developments in making cars safer than
giving them a brain so to speak.
Words by Niall
Words by Niall