Will Our Children Or Grand Children Help?

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.

Notably, autonomous cars with smart technology use intelligent mapping and sensors in order to park the vehicle or avoid obstacles that come in the way. However, Google’s self-driving car accident statistics put light on the fact that even with all these technological advancements, it is highly possible that the autonomous car might crash.

100 years ago, Gottlieb Daimler, the inventor of the automobiles, said “ The worldwide demand for automobiles will not exceed 1,000,000 particularly due to lack of drivers.” However, today humans have created more than 1 billion cars all over the Earth. Furthermore, we have created something that Daimler had never thought about, self-driving cars. It fascinates people's mind when you think of cars going to pick kids from school, taxi’s running without a driver, and your grandparents traveling from place to place without any trouble. And the great thing is that we are not far from these imaginations.

Imagine being able to get into your car and simply typing in your desired destination, and then reclining your seat to watch a movie or text a friend. During this time, the car is basically driving itself. Well, soon this may be possible this invention is called an autonomous car. An autonomous car, or driverless/ robotic car, is a car that is designed to drive without human interference. Essentially, drivers can program their destination into the car’s GPS system and then sit back and relax. Some of the world’s largest car companies are currently creating autonomous vehicles, such as Audi, Toyota, Volvo, Mercedes, and countless others. The driverless vehicle is now becoming a clearer and more present reality, and has been discussed and planned for decades. The autonomous vehicle offers significant benefits, but raises many questions and difficulties.

Since about 90% of traffic accidents are caused by human error (AlertDriving 2011), self-driving car seems much safer. However, the current self-driving car technologies are still far away from perfect. According to Sorokanich (2014), weather, potholes, unmapped roads, road works, unpredictable human activities, and traffic congestions are the problems that self-driving car is still not able to handle. The ‘policeman stopping the car’ situation is also a hard one.

    Driverless vehicles, or the self-driving car, is defined as any car with features that allow it to accelerate, brake, and steer a car’s course with limited or no driver interaction (BI Intelligence par.4). When most people hear the term “driverless vehicle”, people instantly think cars that drive all by themselves, meaning that the vehicles are able to completely control themselves while the driver can sit back in the driver’s seat as if they were the passenger. The reality is that it will actually be a few years before fully self-automated vehicles will make their debut on the road, but for now the car companies and manufacturers are adding self-driving features of the latest models of cars. For example, the 2016 BMW i3 has the capability to self-park itself without the need of the driver to control the steering wheel. This reduces the risk of the driver hitting another vehicle while

Since the first release of cars, improvements have always been needed, such as airbags and brakes for safety reasons; however, with the latest computer technology engineers and scientist have found a way to have cars be self-driven. This removes human error, reduces accidents and releases a new way of transportation. Companies like Google have been involve in creating their own self-driven car and have actually tested them on California roadways. Through their testing, the self-driven car has performed outstanding: recognizing nearby objects and adjusting to the necessary speed and predicting other cars intentions to figure out its next move.

The death of a loved one has the power to fill a person’s life with sorrow, yearning, and regret. When my best friend lost his life in a car accident, despair came over my community, my school, and me. A chasm opened in my heart because I could not stop his death. However, with recent technological advancements, many similar deaths may become preventable. Each year, human error while driving affects thousands of lives whether it be from substance abuse, distractions, or simple mistakes. In coming years, innovations in the autonomous car industry will result in the removal of driver dependency and create safer roadways for all commuters. I am passionate about utilizing the knowledge, diversity, and overall Cornell experience to improve and the safety of autonomous cars around the world.

A new technology is approaching, and it may change the world forever. Imagine a planet where traffic does not exist and there are no more drunk drivers on the roads putting people’s lives in danger. With the invention of self-driving cars, this dream world can be made into reality. A self-driving car is exactly what it sounds like, a car that operates on its own without a human driver. They have raised many controversies as to whether this invention is good or bad. Many people believe that self-driving cars are a threat to humanity, but it is the complete opposite. Self- Driving Cars will have a positive impact on society for many different reasons.

Throughout the history of life-style altering inventions, the automobile is the fundamental transportation unit that our modern society operates on. This one invention has not changed over the the one hundred years that the car has been in use by society; the same basic principle is still there, you drive the car. Maybe with this it is the time to switch our society from manual driving automobiles into autonomous vehicles, what could go wrong? You see, despite the obvious benefits, there are a lot of difficulties that lurk with this technology. One such difficulty includes the limited ability of communication between the computer and the actual human as stated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cummings). If the communication between these two systems fail, the safety of the driver and others are in jeopardy, and can result in vehicle crash.

This talk is about Artificial Intelligence in the form of self-driving cars. Thrun and his group at Stanford University decided to build a different self-driving car with new hardware and software. The cars that they developed is so technologically advanced due to its inclusion of different sensors who allow the car to see, these sensors, in fact, helps the cars make decisions about every aspect of driving. This idea can help people in the prevention of death since driving accidents are the number one cause of death for young people. Also in the presenter's case, this idea could have helped in the prevention on the death of his close friend

With the reality of a Google car just a few years away, people are looking forward to kicking back and letting robotics handle road rage. While the fantasy is a pleasant one, self-driving cars bring upon a philosophical dilemma.

As the years progress, software engineers are creating new and advanced technology to help people multitask such as developing autonomous cars. Autonomous cars are robotic cars that are fully capable of driving humans around without human help. The very first self-driving car was created by Francis P. Houdina in 1925 and was tested in New York City. He called it “The Radio Controlled Driverless Car” but this car stayed as a prototype. In the 1980s, the first self-sufficient and truly autonomous cars finally revealed with the support of many universities along with the car company Mercedes-Benz. Now in 2016, both car and tech companies are working on improving autonomous cars. Many car companies like Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motor,

With the advancement in technologies and researches, driverless vehicles, or autonomous car, would soon be more realistic and common replacement to our traditional cars. Several major companies and organization have been working on the development for this technology. In 1980, Mercedes Benz undertook the UREKA Prometheus project and built their first driverless car. “Late in 2007, six autonomous vehicles successfully completed a 90 kilometer test course of simulated urban traffic” (Hars, 2010). In the beginning of 2013, we had the autonomous car although it was in development stage. It could drive autonomously for hundreds of thousands of miles.

While Autonomous car presents enormous potential and benefits, there is a long way to go before we achieve fully self-driving automation. Going forward, there are three areas we would like to advise on: technical innovation, policy making and industrial strategy.