argument essay

Professor Lehman

English 101

Self-driving Cars

The implementation of driverless cars might at first thought seem very exciting and efficient. One might think that it provides people with much more time for other stuff, such as working or reading while you go somewhere and therefore loves the idea of this device. However the more suspicious person will realize that this is not necessarily a great contribution to the future. In fact it might actually be an immense danger. Can one trust that the technology will not fail the car and thereby fail the person in it? This new topic of self-driving cars has led to a heated debate about whether people can trust the cars or not and how much of one´s attention is required. Some people think that the cars provide the future with opportunities and more time; others assert that they will lead to fatal mistakes. Even though there might be a lot of advantages, autonomous cars are a menace for the future, due to lack of attention, technological problems, and unemployment concerns.

Self-driving cars might seem like science fiction; however, it is something that experts think will be reality in only five to ten years. Companies like Tesla have already released a limited amount of self-autonomous cars, and Google is one of the foremost companies to work towards totally self-automated cars (Fung). Proponents of self-driving cars assert that the cars will save time and reduce accidents as 95 % of accidents are caused by human error (Fung). In contrast to this positive view the problems are many more. A quite obvious one is concern of liability. If in five years, the first 100 percent self-autonomous cars are released, does that really mean one can completely trust it? Does it mean one can focus and pay attention to something other than driving? If a car were utterly autonomous, one would assume that attention towards the road is not needed. While the proponents think that this is a huge benefit and an important factor of timesaving, the opponents think that it is a vast safety problem (Keenan). In May 2016, a Tesla driver was killed in an accident, which had its autopilot feature turned on. Although this was not a fully automated car, it is still proof of technology failing, which led to a fatal outcome that most likely would not have happened had he been driving the car himself (Fung).

In a survey, by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), of more than 2600 Canadians about self-driving cars, it was shown that a significant numbers of the people would text, drink or even sleep while in their automatic vehicle. 9 percent of the people who took the survey claimed that they would drink and drive, while as much as 17 percent said they would do something not related to driving. “These results are disturbing and illustrated that at least some drivers mistakenly believe that these vehicles technologies do not require driver input or attention at all times” (Keenan). The question is whether it is safe to trust technology fully or not. The survey shows that the belief in safer roads with self-driving cars may actually be the exact opposite, which is further corroborated by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (Keenan).

In an article in the Atlantic, more problems with autonomous vehicles have been revealed. It is true that they are programmed to obey laws and avoid crashes. They will most certainly obey the law more loyal than human beings will. However, this can also cause lethal crashes. If something was poking out at onto a highway one would, in order to avoid and accident, move swiftly into the other lane (as long as there was no incoming traffic) and thereby avoid hitting the thing. Conversely, a robotic car will most likely fully stop as it is programmed to not drive over the double-yellow lines and thus cause the people behind the vehicle to cause a crash because of the sudden, unexpected stop (Lin).

Most humans have a wide range of judgment while driving and encountering different obstacles; situations learned over time and situations most people use reason to get out of. An example is something sticking out onto the highway. The driverless cars do not have this ability to reason, they simply do what they are programmed to do and therefore cannot confer to and use judgment in the situation they are in. This becomes a problem of laws and ethics. Sometimes a human might be better off breaking the law and actually save lives in doing so (Lin).

Another problem with driverless cars is that it will affect entire generations of truck- and other services-drivers. All of the drivers of these trucks are getting paid to drive and with the new autonomous cars they will eventually not be needed. Hence, they will become unemployed and it can potentially ruin the drivers´ lives if they cannot quickly learn a new profession and find a new job. Most affected, however, is probably the taxi business. The whole point of driving a taxi is to drive people around that do not have their own cars. The companies of these different services would save a huge amount of money if they started to use autonomous cars as they would no longer need to pay someone a salary. Hence it is very likely that the companies will not hesitate to switch to this new device. The number of people that would lose their jobs to the self-driving car is tremendous and could increase poverty vastly (Forrest, Konca).

The problematic outcomes of the driverless cars weigh very heavily on society. Some thoughts about the roads being safer with the robot cars and bringing people a better way to travel might not be entirely true. It is also important to remember that while it might benefit some people, for example the truck companies, it might be the worst that can happen to others, such as the truck drivers. The lack of attention is another problem; something a lot of people might take for granted once the completely autonomous vehicle enters the market. However one should not decrease his/her attention on the road; technology may fail at one point and when it does one needs to be ready to act. This is clearly, and quite obviously, more difficult if drinking, sleeping or simply doing anything that is unrelated to driving is involved. Therefore people should ask themselves if this is really a good invention or not; weigh pros and cons against each other and not only think about consuming time and saving money. After all, our safety is most important.

Work Cited

Forrest, Alex. Konca, Mustafa. “Autonomous Cars and Society.” Worcester Polytechnic

Institute (Worcester, MA) 1 May 2007. Web. 27 October 2016.

Fung, Brian. ”Driverless Cars: the pros and cons.” The Switch. 15 August 2016: The

Washington Post. Web. 29 October 2016.

Keenan, Greg. "The perils of self-driving cars." Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada) 29

September 2016: B1. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 October 2016.

Lin, Patrick. “The Ethics of Autonomous Cars.” The Atlantic. 8 October 2913. Web. 26

October 2016.

6