Trending Vehicles: Should we look into a future of self driving cars?

Imagine a world with self-driving cars. There are so many benefits of this revolutionary

Idea: The number of accidents will be lowered by hundreds because of the fact that most human error is out of the equation. Getting from point A to B will instead of something that could drive you crazy it’s a relaxing ride.

And yet, I think that there will also be problems with this because of technical errors such as malfunctions with the equipment or hacking into the programming or maybe something as simple as spilling water on the technology.  

Tesla is currently selling what they call, “self-driving cars.” The Tesla is the only self-driving production car of its kind but there are major limits on what they can do. You can’t just punch your destination into the GPS and let the car take you. The car can only drive in a straight line. It cannot make turns or change lanes. This is a very simplistic kind of so-called “self-driving” but the fact that they made a production car that can drive in a straight line by itself with no human control is very impressive and brings us one step closer to a car that is completely unoperated by humans.  

Self-driving cars have been an idea circling around in the car community for some time now. Riding in self-driving cars would be a whole new experience in transportation. Getting from point A to B would be a relaxed cruise instead of being in a rush to get to where you need to go. You could just sit back and let your car drive. There would be no stress getting to where you need to go. There would also be lower insurance cost because with no human error crashes will be minimized. If the driver in the next lane is tired or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he is a hazard to everyone around him. But with self-driving cars, drivers do not have to worry about any of these hazards due to the technology that takes human unpredictability out of the equation.

Self-driving cars are able to prevent a collision with lane sensors to keep you in the right lane and sensors in front of the car matching the speed of the car in front. They also have sensors on the sides of the car keeping it a distance away from the vehicle beside it. But there are problems with the readings of the sensors. I saw this picture where there was a truck and a graphic on the truck was advertising some sort of environment company. The ad had a picture of an open road with trees on the back of the truck. The sensors of a self-driving car picked it up as an open road. That could potentially be a major collision if not fixed.Computers are not perfect either. What would happen if you tried to fix something in the car but messed up the electronics or the computer then in this situation there is human error that causes electronic error.

Self-driving cars are controversial for more reasons, too. One of them is the simple fact that there are people out there that want to do the driving themselves. When you buy a luxury, sports, or any expensive car, you are paying to feel the car and drive it how you please. You can’t go around a track with no hands on the wheel. Imagine the Fast and Furious movies with self-driving cars. How much of a selling-point would Vin Diesel shooting out of a self-driving Dodge Charger be? We get a thrill from driving, but that could be over in the era of self-driving cars.

Another reason self-driving cars are controversial is the unknown risk. A big risk with self-driving cars is acts of violence, even including terrorism. When we give cars more self-driving technology, we also run the risk of turning them into remotely-controllable devices that could be used in violent attacks at no risk to the attacker. If there is someone with the knowledge and the intent to do harm to people with self-driving cars, there is technology to control the car from the outside. Self-driving cars sound like a perfect idea but in the reality of this world people aren’t perfect and there are people that want to do harm.  

Personally, I am caught in the middle of this issue. I love the idea of sitting down and relaxing until you arrive at your destination. This gives you time to do other things if you need to. It sounds revolutionary but the fact is that there can still be problems with the self-driving cars. There are always computer errors and malfunctions which could be deadly on the road and even for the car companies.

As someone looking forward to getting his driver’s license, I can say that if cars all suddenly became self-driving this year, I would not be happy. Driving is such a cool thing whether it be in the Fast and the Furious movies or watching NASCAR on TV. For all these risks, and for the joy of driving, it’s not worth it. Driving today is okay. Sure there are crashes and injuries. But self-driving cars are not guaranteed to fix that. There will still be considerable risks anytime you get into a car.                           

Trending Vehicles is a regular feature in which Lil Borat discusses automotive issues. Got a comment or story idea for lilborat? Hit us up in the comment section or by emailing 8fortymagazine@gmail.com.