Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Cars

AI technology is still in its beginning stages but is moving fast with the capabilities it can achieve. According to IBM “Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind”. Basically, AI can learn, think, and process information just like humans. But there are different types of AI, weak AI and strong AI. Weak AI is what we use every day on our phones you may know her as Siri. Weak AI is also used in autonomous vehicles allowing people to ride with a built in “Uber driver” (By: IBM Cloud Education). There is also strong AI which is the equivalent of the human brain. Although it is only in theory the development of super intelligence could be right around the corner. This surprised me and made me think why would we want strong AI available when its intelligence can surpass the capabilities of humans? Yes, there will be benefits from super intelligence but what if it takes over and out-thinks humans like we see in the movies? I think if we can contain the power of AI its use will forever change society.

For now, I think weak AI needs to continue to develop especially with autonomous driving. After reviewing some statistics regarding autonomous driving, I was surprised to read “There are 9.1 driverless car crashes per million miles driven” (2022). That is more than double the rate of cars driven by people. This just proves the point that autonomous driving needs to improve to protect the passengers of the vehicles.

Although safety may be an issue, autonomous driving might just put an end to taxis. Waymo is a company that uses autonomous vehicles as a transportation service for people to use. Waymo has about 600 cars that have driven nearly 65000 miles with no people in the car. Is this the future of transportation? I think eventually it will be. If AI can improve and become safer, I can see myself using an autonomous vehicle. But for now, I feel more comfortable behind the wheel.

References

By: IBM Cloud Education. (n.d.). What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? IBM. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/what-is-artificial-intelligence#:~:text=In%20popular%20usage%2C%20artificial%20intelligence,these%20and%20other%20capabilities%20to

24 self-driving car statistics & facts. Carsurance. (2022, February 23). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://carsurance.net/insights/self-driving-car-statistics/