Will Our Children Or Grand Children Help?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Time seems to slow down; the car in front of you that was cruising along drastically slows. At first you hesitate and then instinctively slam on the brakes, only to discover your car had already started braking mere seconds before you reacted. It was able to stop your car just before the deadly collision could occur. Vehicle collisions claim 30,000 lives every year in the United States (United States DOT). With autonomous vehicles, that number could be reduced substantially. Although vehicles are inherently dangerous, Americans should support the development of autonomous vehicles to obtain the many benefits and solutions to problems they face.

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.

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.

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

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,

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.

Cars represent a big part of people’s everyday life. They are used to go visit ancestors or colleagues; many need them for work or getting to school faster. But drivers need loads of concentration and accidents are caused because something distracts them. That is why engineers and software developers for Google, Volvo and other companies, have been working on driverless vehicles for the last years. They are designed to make lives easier in a bunch of ways. While they provide a new kind of functionality, they operate different than cars that need a driver. Whereas the new possibilities they present are not all known yet, it is a certainty that they will also cause problems that did not exist before. The only thing

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.

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.