Unavoidability Of Self-Driving Cars

An examination of the legal liabilities surrounding the developing technology involved in autonomous vehicles in the United States of America

Similarly, the article “The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars” explains how driverless cars will be a safer alternative. It explains how humans are more prone to cause an accident than the driverless cars. The article describes the processing behind the vehicles and some problems they face while making them along with how this will delay their production. It also clarifies how the cars will be able to make the decisions that will keep people safe instead of putting them in harm’s way. Finally, the article describes the ethical issues and automation in cars today. According to Kirkpatrick, the cars are equipped with software that determine what reaction to make in different situations that would take a human more time to make, therefore, avoiding an accident. As stated in this article, there is still much work to be done before the cars are actually ready to sell to the public.

The primary concern with transportation is safety; hence the most obvious and largest benefit to the replacement of regular cars with self-driving cars is the decrease in traffic collisions. “Ninety percent of our road accidents are related to bad driving behavior; driving recklessly and speeding under the influence of alcohol, changing lanes without signaling, driving on the hard shoulder and passing through red lights.” -Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Commander in chief of the Dubai Police (Olarte, 2011). The majority of car crashes is caused by human errors, and if this proposition is implemented, the number of fatalities due to car accidents per year will dramatically plummet. In 2012, a Google driverless car had driven over 300,000 miles, with only two accidents being reported, both of which had been a human’s fault (Emerson, 2012). Autonomous cars will have quicker reflexes than humans, make more reliable judgments and will not commit silly mistakes such as texting whilst driving. As a collateral for reducing accidents, this innovation could theoretically also save the government

As many people head out to start their days, a good majority will get into their cars and face many split second decisions. As humans when faced with split second decisions, it is impossible to always make the right choice. Autonomous cars are unable to make ethical decisions, such as deciding which way to swerve where both either direction (right or left) could endanger others.

Vehicles that drive themselves is a concept that is often thought about in futuristic movies or science fiction novels. Throughout, history mankind has been fascinated with robots and cars that could work without humans. Advanced technology is getting closer to making these futuristic ideas the real thing. Living in an advanced technological time would society be ready for this to happen and how far away is this from becoming a reality?

Since the beginning of self-driving cars which first began in 1925 with the creation of the Houdina Radio Control; a car operated by two cars, a transmitter, and an antenna, to now - the futuristic dream of these autonomous cars have transformed into the reality of cars we see now. These cars are nothing short of the new technology advances that have occurred over the past decade. However, with these advances many question whether or not these cars are ready to be sold, due to the fatal accident that occurred May 2016 involving the autonomous Tesla and a white truck. Due to the Tesla not being able to detect the white tractor because of technological issues, the tesla failed to stop, and since the driver was not prepared to steer, it lead to the fatal collision eventually leading to the death of the tesla owner. With the increase of these cars on the road, from companies like BMW, Daimler, Ford, Apple, Uber, and Google, this poses a serious threat to not only the people operating this autonomous vehicle but also to the surrounding drivers. I believe that autonomous cars should not be put on the road, and that these cars are not beneficial to the population.

Technology continues to take over human beings as it develops. Self driving cars aides us when we drive its sensors and other functions to keep us from the dangers of accidents. These robots follow the code that they are programmed, so they strictly follow what has been told to do before hand. Which makes the aiding process harder for the programmer to code because it entirely depends on the context and they need to code that would suit every single accident. However, when the machine considers how to deal with the accident it needs to decide who to sacrifice or harm in order to maintain beneficence. Consequently leads to a problem from a business point of view. Possible solutions to these ethical issues of self driving cars are based on whether

It is a well-known fact that one of the leading killers in the United States is vehicle accidents. Most of these accidents are caused by user error, but there is a new potential culprit on the horizon, self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles). This topic is of particular importance because much of society will soon be faced with the decision of whether to support the use of these cars. This is demonstrated by technology and automotive companies investing large sums of money into the development of these self-driving vehicles. When I was first generating ideas for potential topics, I repeatedly fell on the topic of self-driving cars. I have always been curious about self-driving cars and the specific factors involved when creating them. I used

Self driving cars have been a dream to have but now that they are getting closer to be in your garage, there is many more problems than anticipated for the companies to look for. Its not only the companies that are looking for the problems but also lawmakers and citizens. They are looking at this from every side and point of view to make it all happen one day. After analyzing three sources I learned a lot more about three topics that need to be addressed before these cars take the road. If a crash happens, who takes the blame? How can the cars detect human traffic? And, how will this effect law makers? The main policy problem is if they looking at every possible scenario or not. If they are, can these problems be solved to put the autonomous

Christopher B. Dolan, a lawyer from California, explores how AVs work and the effect their implementation would have on human safety in his post trial report, “Self-driving cars & the bumpy road ahead: can your car drive better without you?” Dolan specifically hones in on the idea that removing humans from the driver seat is the main reason why autonomous cars are safer. Dolan uses the statistic that, “Approximately 35,000 highway fatalities and 95 percent of automobile crashes are caused at least in part by driver error,” to show that having a human behind the wheel 95% responsible for the way in which cars pose a hazard to our physical safety. “Autonomous vehicles (Avs), however, don 't make human mistakes, and there is strong evidence that AV technology may dramatically alter the collision matrix”[1]. Since autonomous cars

Our world is rapidly and continually becoming more and more technologically advanced. In 2020 we will reach a new frontier. A frontier where technology and machines replace humans and where artificial intelligence takes control. This frontier is self driving cars. It is a frontier in which human error will be eliminated and accidents will be reduced by 90% on roadways because humans will no longer be in control (Hudda). Safety features including sensors, connectivity, and software algorithms will create this frontier in which roads are safer. Features that fit specifically into these categories include emergency breaking, constant 360 degree monitoring and vision, and automatic parking. Every year roughly 1.3 million people die from

In today’s world of manual driving, one would probably drive faster than the speed limit in the case of an emergency. Would an autonomous car programmed to follow the laws and regulations of driving have the situational awareness to justify speeding? Perhaps an emergency “speed to the hospital” mode could be installed, but that could give rise to a whole new set of issues. In another scenario, imagine a two-lane road with the cars in both lanes traveling in opposite directions. Suddenly, a squirrel runs out into the middle of the lane. In the choice between harm to oneself and other humans versus harm to a squirrel, it is likely that most humans would opt to sacrifice the squirrel. On the other hand, the self-driving car might be programmed to slam on its breaks, possibly resulting in a crash with the human drivers behind it. If there were no oncoming traffic, a human driver could simply swerve to the other lane to avoid the squirrel, whereas a driverless car that is autonomously following the laws of traffic may be prohibited from crossing the double yellow line that divides the two lanes. It is situations like these that highlight the key issue of how a self-driving car should react when ethics and law

If the legal driving age was raised, seatbelt laws were made the priority, speed limits were lowered, safety features were mandatory in all vehicles, and laws were enforced there would be fewer accidents. If these ideas were put into action, imagine what the fatality rates would look like if the leading causes of fatal accidents were fixed or changed. We could fix what self-driving cars claim they will fix without the self-driving car its self, making the need for these cars unnecessary.

In this current year, autonomous cars are being tested and manipulated by automobile manufacturing companies around the world. Toyota plans to introduce its first models that are capable of self-driving to the market by 2020… and BMW intends to launch its self-driving electric vehicle, which it calls the BMW iNext, in 2021. The US Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, has even directly stated that he expects driverless cars to be in use all over the world within the next 10 years. While these cars are promising in that they could potentially reduce the number of car crashes- and thus, prevent many deaths from occurring- they also foreshadow many unavoidable ethical dilemmas. One dilemma that is commonly addressed relates to deciding how a machine should react in a dire situation where it can either choose to save the driver of a vehicle- killing innocent bystanders on the side- or to save the bystanders, while killing the human (who is also most likely also innocent) that is driving the vehicle. I don’t believe there is a way to create or find an absolute answer to this dilemma, as every person will have his or her own

First of all, making a moral decision in some emergency situation may be impossible for an autonomous car. Newcomb (2014) mentions the “tunnel problem” which was a hypothesis about autonomous cars in emergency. There was an autonomous car traveling in a single-lane highway, and a boy who was crossing inside tumbled when the car was going into a tunnel. The car had to strike either side of the tunnel entrance with sacrificing the life of passengers, otherwise hit the boy to death. In this situation, whichever the autonomous car choice, it will take the blame of immorality. Specifically, if an autonomous car was set as