Autonomous Vehicles: The future of transportation?

Elijah

(GIGABYTE, n.d.)

The advancement of technology has allowed us to take over certain human activities in order to develop a safer, more efficient society. Autonomous vehicles, also known as self-driving cars, are a prime example of this happening today. Are autonomous cars the future of our transportation? Or is it too soon to begin trusting artificial intelligence to take us to our destination?

Self-driving cars certainly have the potential to significantly reduce traffic accidents that occur due to human error. Experts believe that autonomous vehicles can prevent almost all accidents caused by human impairment or distraction. However, it has been demonstrated that even with today’s technology, autonomous vehicles are prone to making mistakes. They have been held accountable for a number of high-profile traffic accidents, which resulted in the death of those involved — several of these cases revolve around Tesla’s fully self-driving system. In fact, the American Automobile Association reports that approximately 71% of Americans prefer to drive themselves or by another human compared to a computerized driver. It was later revealed that this was due to a lack of trust in the current technology involved with the autonomous vehicle industry.

While at the moment it appears that perhaps the technology for fully autonomous vehicles isn’t ready, there are other quality-of-life changes and features that come with self-driving vehicles. It appears that people are more favorable of the self-parking features that some cars have, such as the Tesla Model S. While this may be the case, an often overlooked safety concern with autonomous vehicles is their vulnerability to hackers or cybercriminals. Consequently, this could potentially result in dangerous traffic accidents, putting those in the vehicle and pedestrians in danger. Another scenario involving this would be for cybercriminals asking for a ransom, with threats to fatally crash the vehicle.

Various other implications reside with self-driving cars, such as the many misconceptions that follow suit with how they function. Many incidents revolving around autonomous vehicles causing crashes may actually be the result of the driver. While the term “self-driving” is used, oftentimes the technology is designed with the intention that there is still a human driver involved and actively behind the wheel. This is because as of right now, autonomous vehicles are still far from fully safe. Take, for example, Tesla’s Model S on-street beta testing accident involving Joshua Brown. He, unfortunately, died when the Model S began speeding while on autopilot mode when it eventually crashed with a tractor-trailer. Reports claim that this was caused by the Tesla being unable to tell the difference between the white trailer, and the bright sky. Incidentally, given the current industry technology, self-driving cars are still too slow in their ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations.

Ultimately, while the future of self-driving cars holds great potential, at its current state, the autonomous vehicles available today still lack the ability to reassuringly control the vehicle in a safe manner. This leads many industry experts to also believe that the ability of autonomous cars today, is still far inferior to that of a novice driver.

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