Blog : Are Automated Cars the Future of Transportation

As technology advances into mind boggling stages, many of these systems are applied to the things we use in our day to day life. Cars are one of the most common ways of transportation. Studies show that the global number of motor vehicles will surpass 2 billion and cars represent 50 percent of these vehicles.

Newer cars are now being produced with an in built AI which can drive the car on its own, many companies like Tesla, BMW, Mercedes Benz etc. are creating and manufacturing self driving and driver-less cars. Now the question arises, Is it as great as it is being displayed, Is it really going to reduce the number of casualties caused by car accidents? AI is very advanced technology and no one denies this, but is it really something to trust your life with?

There are many pros and cons for this, it is estimated that 90 percent of road fatalities are attributed to humans drunk driving, speeding, distractions inside and outside of the vehicle are all factors for these casualties On average 1.3 million lives are lost every year and this is not a small number. In Australia alone, 1000 casualties occur every year, this number is not including all those accidents which cause injuries. Placing an AI to do this job for the humans can erase and eradicate all of the casualties which come in action because of human error and ignorance.

Many people around the world have restricted access to transportation because of some disability or a result of age. Fully automated cars will remove the need for a drivers licence meaning that those people who have been deemed as dangerous on the road for themselves and others will have full access to driving technology without putting anyone in risk, not themselves nor anyone else around them. There is always the benefit for those people who take driving more as a need and burden than hobby. They won't have to drive anymore.

Now time to look at the risks and cons, criminal hacking would take the number one place. With an inbuilt computer in your car, the people who the skill would be able to hack into that computer and track you where ever you go with your car without you ever even knowing, this puts a dent in your privacy and a major slack in security. Safety measures are being adopted to counter this, but there is always an extent and limit to what we can do.

Like I just said, there is a limit to what we can do, this brings us to another flaw, all computers are programmed to do certain things and run in a certain matter, with all automated systems there is always the risk of of the computer crashing due to a certain error or glitch. After all no computer is infallible. Another con is an interactive named Moral Machine, this means that in situations where there is no good option to make, what the machine should be programmed to choose is disputed.

In conclusion, no matter how advanced technology and AI gets, how many benefits might be apparent, there are going to be flaws. In result my opinion would be that completely automated cars has many implications which will be hard to solve, although, cars wherein the driver has full control whilst the AI is driving, is not bad of an idea. So for the people who do not like to drive and who do enjoy it, no one should loose hope What do you think? Tell me in the comments.