Humans Are Causing More Self Driving Car Accidents Than Computers…
Sure, the future is a bit freaky – but do you really have to try and beat up the robots? Google, Uber, Tesla and other leading tech firms are in the midst of launching driverless cars, offering hands free, distraction free roadways piloted by sophisticated computer. And why stop there? Simultaneously, research is being conducted to offer air taxis, purportedly within the next five years. While we think these developments are wildly exciting, some humans are lashing out at their hands free counterparts – creating road rage and body slams for all to see.
Human Error
Lots of fuss is being made about the safety woes of driverless cars. Can a robot really drive as safely as a human being? The answer is unequivocally: yes. Self driving cars have boasted phenomenal safety records since their inception, with one asterisk attached: deliberate human crashes. You got that one exactly right – people are slamming their cars, bodies or other objects into cars they notice to be driverless. We won’t begin to understand the reasons, but these traffic incidents are the greatest issue featuring self driving vehicles.
By The Numbers
According to traffic reports sourced by TPG, there have been seven incidents involving self driving cars in 2018. Of those minor incidents, 4 out of 7 were caused by humans purposely attacking the vehicles or when a human took over the controls from the computer. Yes, three incidents appear to be the fault of the self driving car – but a larger percentage were solely to blame upon human error.
April Self Driving Launch
California will allow self driving cars beginning in April of 2018. Could this be the beginning of robots taking over, and enslaving the human race, as they drive around in futuristic cars? Not if pedestrians and enraged human drivers have anything to say about it. In all seriousness, this could truly mean the launch of driverless taxi service from companies such as Uber. How would you feel about getting in a car with “no” driver.
Interesting that although autopilot has existed for aircraft for decades, you would never, EVER, find a pilot who would be willing to fly an aircraft that did not have multiple redundant systems and more importantly — manual override. Additionally, the maintenance schedule on aircraft is far more rigorous than that for automobiles. I fail to see this push to ‘automated’ cars, especially the way it is being done. Throttle is already by wire, now they’re going to make brake by wire as well as steering? And…we’ve already lost the ’emergency’ brake to be replaced by the ‘e-brake’, which, is not an ’emergency’ brake at all, but merely an actuated clamp on the rear wheels that will only function assuming your automobile computer is functioning properly (i.e. in the least has power).
It’s a major contradiction, the same government that mandates a dozen airbags and A and B pillars that can support the weight of the car on the roof (that adds tremendous weight to each new vehicle thus sacrificing fuel economy as well as sacrificing visibility) would now allow automated cars without any redundant/manual override systems is amazing. Let’s face it, computers are designed by man, is infallible? Hell, I can’t go 2 days without Windows 10 forcing yet another update on me to fix yet another bug. Why would these automated systems be any better?
Additionally, let’s be succinct here, ultimately the automated car is going to go where the programmer tells it to go, not necessarily where ‘you’ want it to go. Those who control this new network, ultimately control when and where you go, and obviously ‘know’ when and where you’re going there — 1984 has arrived.
I will keep my true ‘autonomous’ car, me being the autonomous entity, thank you very much.