Reading 12: I need a car that can handle snow
Self driving cars are appealing because they take the need for drivers out of the equation, which ultimately saves money for both companies like Uber and consumers like me. If this technology were to be developed in a safe and thorough way, it could make roads a great deal safer and potentially cut down on traffic problems. Good tech could cut down on human error on the road and subsequently car accident fatalities. Critics argue that this type of technology is being developed without sufficient regulation, making it unpredictable and dangerous. Another potential issue is how this will value drivers over pedestrians, encouraging less Eco-friendly forms of travel. As the Longreads article notes, “AVs are a kind of throwback, making streets less accommodating to anyone on foot.” This tech also opens the door to a host of moral issues such as the very popularly cited Trolley problem which, in context, questions whether autonomous vehicles would prioritize the lives of pedestrians or passengers.
I believe many of the notions that driverless cars could could one day reduce car accidents so dramatically that people will drop man of the questions of the moral implications. At some point, when every car is autonomous and can communicate with each other as well as effectively react to surroundings, this could be the case. I’m not entirely sure what the best way to get from point A to point B is. I think, as of right now, the companies developing the vehicles should be liable for accidents because many of the issues arise due to insufficient testing before heading towards public roads. With that in mind, I think the only safe way to adopt this tech is to increase government regulation on development and testing.
As a way to combat the competition for swift automation of vehicles from a host of companies, state regulation is going to have to be improved dramatically. The current “innovate-at-all-costs” mentality, as Longreads puts it, “puts little emphasis on safety.” The Atlantic article lays out some of the many issues persisting in autonomous vehicles including but not limited to the threat of GPS hacking, the inability to navigate poorly maintained streets, and the inability to perform well in poor conditions. Even with all of these well known issues, these vehicles are being put onto public roads because states like Arizona want the financial benefit of tech companies posting up there. The Atlantic morality article acknowledges, “none of the parties involved seemed to possess sufficient knowledge of the vehicle’s current (not future) capacity for doing harm — not the company that makes the car, the driver who operates it, or the government that regulates it.” With the opacity of the situation it seems the optimal course of action would be to move at a slower and safer pace.
I would not want an autonomous car for quite some time because while I think in the long run they may be the safer option, there is still far too much unknown to trust this as a safe option. I also want to live in the Northeast, and apparently these can’t handle the snow.
