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Driver-Less Cars

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Accidents happen every day, which consists of terrifying situations in an individual’s life and there are hundreds or thousands of accidents involving automobiles. A known fact is that most number of people has no survivals as they do not get to hospital in time after their car accident. The 2010 national Automobile census, mentioned that more than 90% of reported accidents were caused by driver and less than 10% was due to outside or car problems. As the advances of technology increases, so does the danger to people. This is due to there being production of faster cars that are more powerful, therefore increasing the chances of danger.
The famous futurist Norman Bell Geddes said that “Your grandchildren will snap across the entire continent in 24 hours on a new kind of highway and in a new kind of driverless car that is controlled by the push of a button," Some say his idea was what inspired the creation of the Interstate Highway System. Few years ago, the driverless cars were seen as just science fiction, an imagination that was only accomplished in movies and novels. However it is close to being a reality that will be soon experienced.
Currently, technology is so close, as our cars are technologically advanced enough to be able steer themselves. Moreover, the cars can also accelerate and brake to sustain a safe driving distance from any cars ahead and also detect and avoid crashes with other cars on all the sides. With this much technology advancement, making the cars driverless will only take some more software upgrade and then the science fiction will be our reality.
The benefits of driverless cars outweigh the benefit of having human drivers because human are almost all the time responsible for accidents, due to their carelessness, emotions, driving after drinking or drug usage, tiredness. Taking out the human factor means, there is almost no human error, which means fewer accidents .In addition, human driving will cause more pollution, since they will not be as efficient as driverless cars due to the variance in speed causes more burning of fuels. Driverless means there would be constant speed, which means less fuel consumption.
In 2007 the vice president of research for General Motors MR Lawrence predicted that in 2018 the driverless cars would be completed and will be available to purchase on the market. Also, he said in the event that the main thing holding back the production of these driverless cars were not technology based but actually due to bureaucrats and legal issues.
There is more advantage with Driverless automobiles than the current automobiles. One of the main reasons is that the computers have a significantly faster reaction compared with a human driver. In addition, driverless could work together with other driverless cars, which will significantly reduce traffic causing smooth and faster travelling. This will without a doubt reduce congestion that happens in roads nowadays. This means that there is no need for any more road constructions. This reduces he destructions of lands in order to build more therefore be less habitats destructions also countries nature scenery will be left alone.
So how does the current version of the driverless cars work? I was wondering the same thing. The most famous driverless car at the moment is the “Google Driverless Car”; the idea was created by Google, by Sebastian Thrun, the co-inventor of Google Street View. These driverless automobiles use laser range finders and video cameras, used to detect any traffic. Furthermore, they can map the road from one point to another point, in which all the passenger has to do is input their desired destination and the driverless car calculates the route to get to the point. Mr Tom Jacobs who is a spokesman for the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, has had a chance to ride in the Google car said to the BBC news that "When the car is on self-driving mode, it doesn't speed, it doesn't cut you off, it doesn't tailgate."
Cars that are driverless are called “autonomous vehicle” referring to an automobile that “uses artificial intelligence, has sensors and global positioning system coordinates which assist to drive itself without the need for any human driver or any sort of human operator. One of the key members of the Google driverless cars Mr Bradley Keyes said that “Google Driverless Cars are better than you while drunk. Driverless cars are already greater than an impaired driver. Soon they will be better than the average driver. And eventually they will be better than all human drivers. “
Driverless cars could help people in the society who are unable to drive and need assistance like, the elderly, disabled, blind people and children, which is one of the major benefits of driverless car production. This provides to be useful to parents or caretakers as they do not need to waste money or time to chauffer for them. This means parents don’t need to drop them off at school, or pick them up, since it will do it for them. Also, it would reduce the amount of spaces needed to park since they would park more efficiently. This means there would be no need for any physical signs or line making for parking areas like we have now since it will most likely already inputted in the system, as they could communicate with other cars to know where there is space to park. Also the car could drop of the passengers closer to where they need to go, due to self-parking.

Despite there being so many positives for driverless cars, there are still important negatives against these cars. The main reason is that it is still in early production and cannot do the things I have said in the essay but will be able to in the future. In addition, we are still unaware how well it will be able to do these tasks. Plus, there is still a high probability of human error, as humans are the programmers and makers of this technology. Driverless cars mean there will be no need for any humans, which will be a disadvantage for taxi drivers and chauffeurs; meaning fewer jobs, especially in this current economic climate, as job as difficult to find. However, some people say believe in the safety of giving an artificial intelligence this much control of something. Even though there will still be humans needed for things like software updating and maintaining.

To conclude, the age of driverless automobiles are undoubtedly nearing us at a rapid rate. There will obviously be people supporting it due to the vast amount of positives about it. There will also be people against it with their own reasons. The main thing I want to know is that If the computer will be better at driving than a human in the near future. What is there to stop us creating computer AI which is better or more efficient than humans in other things e.g. jobs such as doctors or police. Then what will be the role of humans? Soon will humans be seen as obsolete to one of our own greatest creations the computers? There are many questions and only time will tell.

Bibliography and Citation

Deaton, Jamie Page. "How Driverless Cars Will Work" 01 July 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://auto.howstuffworks.com/under-the-hood/trends-innovations/driverless-car.htm> 13 December 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19726951 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443524904577651552635911824.html http://www.theengineer.co.uk/home/blog/guest-blog/the-road-to-driverless-cars/1014667.article http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328585.300-driverless-cars-ready-to-hit-our-roads.html http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/10/cars-as-the-fourth-screen.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9755210.stm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121204145559.htm
Virginia Tech (2012, December 4). Driverless vehicles expected to navigate intersection of safety, speed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 11, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2012/12/121204145559.htm http://www.edmunds.com/car-news/drivers-not-sold-on-driverless-cars-survey-says.html http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/05/08/googles-self-driving-car-can-a-computer-drive-better-than-a-human/

Read from: http://www.itworld.com/security/279273/privacy-group-wants-googles-driverless-cars-kept-road

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240149949/Sons-of-Duqu-targeted-in-Microsoft-May-security-update
(2012, 12). Driverless Car. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 12, 2012, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Driverless-Car-1297963.html

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