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Summary: Lyft a ride share company has taken further arangements to secure dirverless car tecnology with recent aiance with Magna International. They plan on jointly developing and manufacturing self-driving car systems to be in the future intergrated in Lyft's current netwok of rideshare vehicles. Magna said it would invest $200 million into lyft raising the companies valuation to $11.7 billion. Magna is the latest in Lyfts alliances where they have already made partnerships with Ford and General Motors. Lyfts main competitor has also been working on self-driving technology, but independently.
Analysis: AI has so many different uses and with transportation this would be extremely convenient expecially in city settings where parking is limited. If cars were able to make rounds picking up people on their own while an indiidual was at work it would be mutually bennificial with the cost of the ride decreasing and the individual making a profit where they woud of had to pay for parking before. The only downside would be the potential loss in employment, but there is sure to be a lack of trust in an automomous trust so there would still be demand for human drivers.
Questions:
1) Would you trust an autonoumous car that is not yours to drive you?
2) What other drawbacks would you anticipate to self-driving cars?
3) Is there a line to where we should restrict AI from taking over human jobs?
11 comments:
1. HECK NO! It’s actually really scary to think that machines and technology are taking over our society. While innovation is great and has many benefits, I think there are some things which need to be kept robot-free. For example, Lyft and other transportation services should always require a human being to drive. I guess one could argue that it’s not much different from self-parking cars and such but it’s def. a bit much to have a robot drive you around. Plus, if we continue to replace humans for machines in the work industry then a huge amount of people will face unemployment. Overall, no. This is a bit too extreme but very cool idea?
YES, the auto drive would be way safer than a human driver, including my own driving. Plus, it would automatically calculate the fastest route to my destination, without me fumbling on my Google Maps. Also, no parking fee! It drops me off, and can go pick up someone else. Not to mention the time saved on circling around parking lots looking for spaces. And I don't even have to pay gas money or a car, which, with the lowered price of autonomous rides, will actually save me money (I did a research paper on autonomous ride sharing at Stanford, and a family can expect to save around $5000 over the lifetime of a car by switching to autonomous rides only).
In response to Alexa's comment above, I expect that almost all jobs that currently exist will be replaced by AI (or some form of enhanced human/AI combination) within a few centuries (check out Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, he makes a very good case on the future of AI; for example, AI is not taking over human society, but will eventually replace humans in a human created society... very cool concept).
One last question... Is there a reason why transportation services should always require a human being to drive?
Sorry about the long comment, it's cuz I'm a big fan of AI lmao.
I don't think I would trust an autonomous car to drive me until it is proven and backed by numerous tests. I need to be sure that I will get to my destination without any problems. I think that the biggest problem with autonomous cars is the most obvious: a robot can't make decisions as well as a human. Driving requires a lot of important decision-making skills that I don't think can be perfectly mimicked in AI. Although I personally am not that optimistic about this type of technology, I think that AI will be influential in the future. AI will be very useful in other industries, but I just don't think that the transportation industry should be the one (unless there is a lot of studies that will back it). As to where we should draw the line for AI taking over human jobs, I think that any job that a human can do with very minimal risk shouldn't be taken over by AI. If there is an extremely dangerous job, or one that is tedious and a waste of time, that is where AI should be developed. Driving is a very fun activity to some, so I don't support a complete takeover by AI in this industry.
I think an autonomous car may be beneficial for drivers who have not yet fully developed the prefrontal cortex that plays a dominant role in decision making skills. From what I've heard, prefrontal cortexes are not fully developed until people reach the age of 25. I've also learned in psychology that people only think that they're better drivers than they actually are, but in reality, are worse (for the most part because humans are innately overconfident in their abilities).However, I think I would still feel safer driving myself or having someone else drive instead of an autonomous car. I don't know how to actually calculate the risk, but I do agree with Kamal in that there are decisions that autonomous cars would not be able to make as well as humans could.
To answer question 1, autonomous cars will be much safer than human driven ones. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The reason why it seems riskier is because of psychology. The reason why people are afraid of riding in autonomous cars rather than driving their own is the same reason why people are afraid of flying. Driving is statistically much more dangerous than flying, yet most people are more afraid of flying than driving. I'm no psychology expert but it's logical enough to say that people are afraid of flying because: a.) they aren't in control and b.) whenever a plane accident happens the media blows it up as it is so rare and catastrophic, but when a car crashes it isn't anything special. It’s all risk perception, and it translates perfectly to autonomous cars.
This concept applies to all sorts of other things. When I took drivers ed, I was confronted by all sorts of horrifying statistics about texting and driving. People still text and drive because they figure “I’m in control, I’m not stupid like those people”.
A mix of AI and human driving would be best, in my opinion. If all cars were synched to one central server and the cars planned the routes to avoid other cars, I think AI driving would be beneficial. Like Max highlighted, there are many benefits to self-driving cars.
But this would require all cars on the road to be self-driving. I don't have confidence that a self-driving car can react fast enough to that jerk who cuts you off in the exit lane or a jaywalker who doesn't know how to look both ways before crossing. Therefore, there should be a way for a human driver to control the car and react to unforeseen circumstances.
I realize this plan is far from fool-proof, and I don't have nearly enough of an understanding of AI and self-driving cars to be strongly confidence or not in the safety of self-driving cars.
As for robots taking our jobs, I like to think that technology opens up job opportunities in other sectors of the markets. Yes, advances in technology may take the place of a human (mostly for calculations or automated processes), and the Econ textbook called this "labor-saving technology," but the textbook also stated that long-term employment increased 88% with the development of new technology. (This is in Chapter 18, for reference; I forgot the exact details of the statistic.)
TL;DR: AI and self-driving cars have potential to succeed. Robots don't take all our jobs away -- just some of them.
I think I would trust these cars, but I am afraid of it taking over jobs. However, this would probably need more workers in the background checking technicalities so maybe the demand of workers would not be as low. I am also worried that the beginning of this will cause accidents but we will never know until it is tried. In theory, this is a great idea, it just has to be applied correctly. I think this idea is great because it would save overall time and money but I don't like the idea of jobs being taken away from people.
Recently, there was a self driving car in Arizona that crashed into a pedestrian who was crossing the street. She died. I think that if the car is manufactured and engineered correctly, it could be a very safe option. However, due to accidents that have happened with Uber, I would not trust the cars. These cars most likely use sensors to sense objects and other cars, and if somehow, there is a blockage, it could be very very dangerous. I also wouldn't say that robots are taking away jobs because all these things need to be coded and tested and manufactured, so there would be more jobs on that front.
I have a really hard time trusting self driving cars. I think the idea of self driving cars is a really good idea and will definitely progress, but I don't trust self driving cars among regular cars. I think that if every car was a self driving car I would trust it a lot more. If every car is a self driving then that would clearly get rid of "bad drivers" and could potentially make driving safer. However, until society reaches that point I don't trust them.
I personally would have a hard time adjusting to autonomous cars. It would also take a long time for me to develop a trust in the system, and I'd want ways to get out of the car or to stop it for emergency situations. While human error is significantly more than that of machines, I do want the choice of being in control of my life than giving that to a machine. That said, in the long term, I do believe autonomous cars would make driving safer, after a lot of trial and error fixes.
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