Companies such as Uber, Google, and Tesla have been competing to develop self-driving automobiles for several years now, and you may have even seen Google's cars around the Bay Area. While this technology has a massive upside, one of the first real blunders took place in Tempe, Arizona when one of Uber's self-driving cars struck and killed a woman as she walked her bike across the street. Although the crash occurred at nighttime and the woman didn't appear to be using a crosswalk, Uber has suspended several of its experimental operations in Pittsburgh and Arizona, and police are investigating the death. The car was reportedly driving under the speed limit, yet failed to detect the pedestrian (despite technology that is supposed to allow it to 'see' in the dark).
This occurred after Arizona cut back safety regulations on self-driving cars to try to lure big companies from California into their state and promote job growth. Uber's cars are manned by safety drivers who are supposed to remain alert and ready to seize control of the vehicle, but unfortunately the driver in the car in question was distracted and had his hands away from the wheel. This has brought into question whether there should be stricter regulations on self-driving cars, or if they should be allowed to be on public roads at all.
I personally think that self-driving technology is the future of the automotive industry, as it can drastically reduce DUIs and other forms of distracted driving while being put to a plethora of other uses (such as autonomous taxis, etc.). I do not think that we should ban these cars from public roads, but I do believe that there should be tighter monitoring on the drivers who are placed in these cars for emergencies, and companies should take extra measures to make these cars as safe as possible in the experimental phase. At the same time, I feel that a regular driver might have hit the woman as well, as she was walking across the street in the dark (10PM) without a crosswalk, so it wasn't necessarily as clear-cut of an incident as the news report might depict it as.
What do you guys think about the future of self-driving cars? Should we ban them from roads altogether? Enforce stricter regulations? Should there be a uniform federal policy with regards to their use and experimentation?
10 comments:
I kind of agree with you, self driving cars are the furture of the automobile industry, and since this kind of car is fairly new, the draw backs of this experiment are revealed. The company should have went all out on testing the cars and making sure they were safe for the general public, or ,that if there were any problems or malfunctions, the driver knew how to handle the situation. I feel like it all comes down to the driver's themselves, if he had been paying attention this accident might not have happened or ended in death. I feel like stricter regulations should be enforced, especially during the testing phase so that it's not just thrown out on the street.
I think that when improved, self-driving cars will lower the amount of accidents caused by driver error. Angry, intoxicated, or inexperienced drivers will no longer be a worry once the technology behind these cars is more developed, but it seems like there's still some time before that happens. I agree with Daniel in that self-driving cars should not be banned from the roads, but there should be stricter regulations to ensure the safety other drivers or pedestrians while manufacturers are still working out the flaws.
I agree with Maria and Naomi in that self-driving cars are undeniably the future of the automobile industry, and that in the long run, they will be beneficial in reducing the occurrence of automobile-related accidents and crimes. That being said, based on the potential for events like this to occur, I definitely think that stricter regulations need to be put in place to ensure that the cars operate smoothly on the road and that they do not pose a threat to pedestrians, regardless of whether they are on crosswalks or jaywalking. I am also not to sure exactly how the whole system with the monitoring person in the cars works, but I think that manufacturers need to ensure that the people placed in these vehicles that are being tested are responsible and will ensure that accidents do not occur.
Even though it is unfortunate that someone had to die for this test to happen, it is important that these bugs are fixed before these cars go onto the streets. After this incident, Uber has gone back to the exact same site to see exactly what went wrong and why. Most people will agree that there is little harm to put self driving cars onto the streets and the main problem is regulation. I think that more specific regulation needs to be put in place before we start moving self driving cars onto the streets. For example, if you leave your car and tell it to try to find parking and then it hits someone, it should be explicitly stated that it is the drivers fault, whether or not they were in the car. Things like this need to be ironed out before self driving cars are put on the streets in order to prevent future chaos.
Why was this women jaywalking in the first place? I seriously don't mean to discredit the debate on accidents from the self-driving car auto industry, but I'd like to use this comment space to talk about the dangers of jaywalking. There are many facts that you probably did not know about jaywalking. For instance, did you know that jaywalking is illegal? Might not have, considering how many people you see nowadays that jaywalk for their own convenience! Did you know that jaywalking can get you killed? Many people nowadays don't seem to take this concern seriously enough. The aerial image of where this lady was runover seems to indicate that this woman was jaywalking. Self-driving cars are designed to follow all the rules of the road a lot better than humans, but self-driving cars are by no means designed to screech to a halt from 40 mph to 0 mph when irresponsible humans come leaping out of the bushes like monkeys. Stop blaming the self-driving car companies. Please. Be civilized. Use the crosswalk.
These self-driving cars are relatively new technology and though unfortunate, such glitches and malfunctions are inevitable. Although she did not help the situation by walking in the middle of the street, such an accident may have been bound to happen. However, this should not be the reason that self-driving cars be canceled as the best way to improve upon this technology is to test it in real environments. That being said, I also feel that regulations should be created to test the sensors on self-driving cars and maybe have real drivers within the cars to take over before a malfunction occurs.
Recently, I was surprised by the fast advances in the self-driving technology. However, after this crash, I believe these advances will come to a halt. What happened in Arizona shows that the current technology is not safe enough to trust when dealing with the safety of citizens. Personally, I believe stricter regulations surrounding self-driving cars need to be put in place. Although the current self-driving testing and technology is impressive it cannot be deemed safe and therefore must continue to develop.
Self-driving cars are interesting and definitely something to look forward to because of the new technological advances that could be beneficial for our society in the future, but they need to be reevaluated. I think banning them would be extreme because they are an indication of new advancements and inventions that are notable. Self-driving cars should be fixed before test driving them in places where there are a lot of people because of dangers like this one. Furthermore, there definitely should be restrictions on where self-driving cars are allowed to protect accidents like this one from happening anywhere else. A uniform policy could be helpful, although the car companies may not follow it.
I think self driving cars are a great invention because there are so many possibilities with it. As Daniel said, there are many benefits to it, like limiting DUIs and allowing for safe driving for people that may not be in a physical or mental state to safely drive. It is clear that there is still work to be done on the quality of these self driving cars, but I think in the end they will be much better functioning than normal cars driven by people. They definitely should not be banned altogether, but they could be limited to where they are allowed to go.
I agree that self-driving cars are the future of automation and that computers could easily be better drivers than most people. However, I think that there should be less self-driving cars on the road until the detection technology can be perfected because until then, accidents will continue to occur and be reported. These reports will only support the paranoia that some people already have about relinquishing control and trusting their own safety to a machine, which would delay the time when self-driving cars become the norm.
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