A Smarter Car
What You Can See Today
One of the greatest feats of humankind was the development of roads, which greatly improved travel and transportation for people. With the prospect of traveling great distances more efficiently the next step was for new and better methods of travel. One of the most common methods for people today is driving a vehicle such as a car. Since cars were first created, people have constantly been seeking to improve their designs, features, and functionalities to improve the experience of the driver and passengers. As these vehicles improve and change, they have slowly become automated in many aspects from switching gears to being able to park without any human input. With new technology continuously advancing in cars, it will not be much longer before the first fully autonomous or self-driving car is created, and another big step is taken.
As of today, we still have some time to wait before we will be able to use a vehicle that requires no input from the driver. While much of the technology for such a vehicle does exist and has become more common in many cars, there are still limitations. We see features that shine some light on how such self-driving cars would work, such as rearview cameras and blind spot detection. While these features would be standard in a self-driving car, they are considered perks in a manually controlled car; they have proven very beneficial for safety, but not essential. but while in a manually controlled car it has been very beneficial for helping to keep drivers safer on the road. Self-parking is another step toward an autonomous car since it allows a person to park or leave a parking space without even needing to be in the vehicle at the time. With so many sensors and devices put in most cars, driving has become much simpler and safer for everyone on the road.
With each car, the level of self-driving varies depending on what is incorporated in the vehicle. Some cars stand above others, as they have many sensors and features that provide feedback for the driver to help them react appropriately to situations they may not even be aware of. Some cars can track the positions of the car in the lane and adjust when or if it begins to unintentionally shift out of the lane. These features aim to make the driver’s experience easier and safer without trying to take too much control from the driver. Unfortunately, with all the extra perks that make the cars so much better causes the price to rise, making many of the top of the line cars with more self-driving features less affordable for just anyone to own. While there are plenty of car manufacturers that have been developing these incredibly advanced cars, there are still issues that must be overcome before transportation is changed completely.
What Could Go Wrong
While being able to jump in your car and not have to worry about driving yourself to the destination sounds like it will be much better for anyone, there are still downfalls that such a car will face. An example of one such downfall is the development of an AI, or artificial intelligence, that will be the brain of the vehicle. The AI uses all the data gathered from each sensor and device to control the car in the best possible way. With so many devices collecting information around the vehicle there could be risks if any of them were to malfunction and the computer not adapting to the unknown change. Currently a perfect AI for this circumstance is still being developed, but there is more to the problem than just creating an AI to process all the data; it also must make the right calls in any situation.
This leads to another problem of ethics that people trying to develop self-driving cars must deal with to have them accepted in society. If a person is in a self-driving car and there is a dangerous situation that the car cannot avoid, how should the car handle it? Would it be better to risk the life of the passengers if there is a worse outcome from not doing so or should the passenger always be top priority no matter what? Ethics play an important role in designing a self-driving car since any vehicle has a possibility of running into an unavoidable situation that could be dangerous. While there are many ideas on how this could be handled, it is impossible to know every possible situation that the vehicle could deal with. Designers must determine how the cars will respond to anything. Even if the car’s responses are predetermined, there are always unforeseen circumstances that will happen, especially when dealing with the unpredictability of other humans, whether on the road or not. In those cases, it will be necessary to understand how the car will reach a life or death decision in a split second. As we move toward the future, those obstacles will be overcome, and we will see great strides in reaching the goal of a completely self-driving car.
Where Will It Take Us?
When you think of self-driving cars you may think of examples from movies or maybe a video of a test drive online, but those do not give the full vision of what is to come from a truly autonomous car. Such a car would not have any need for human input throughout the entire trip and will be able to determine all the best data about the trip. It would potentially lack any controls at all for the person using it unless the driver desired the option for them to manually control it. In the best possible circumstance of everyone owning a self-driving car instead of a manually operated car, there would be no need to operate the vehicle at all since the car would be safer without human interaction. This would allow for the designs of the vehicle to be different and more geared towards comfort and spaciousness, without having to worry about adding any extra components that may take up room. In a future with every car on the road being self-driving, the next big impact would be the eradication of traffic, which I personally look forward to.
With each car being controlled by an AI, they would be able to network every car together. This would allow each car to be able to communicate with the others around them to move in perfect synchronicity and allow for a seamless flow of traffic. This would also allow the car to be even safer since it will be able to predict what every other vehicle will do, which takes away the risk of the unpredictability of people. With so much promise from such vehicles it is a shame that we still do not have access to such technology yet. However, in several years we may start to see them. While it may be a slow process to have everyone transition to owning a self-driving car, it will be well worth it for the benefits that we will experience.
