Science WAC - Are self driving cars worth the risk? | Nicolas Reed | 1/7/19-1/11/19

nreed1005
Ms. Garcia
Science 8
1/11/19

Self Driving Cars Are Not Worth the Risk

        Currently, the world is debating about whether or not we should use self driving cars. This topic has created tons of controversy and currently, we are torn on what the right decision is. Self driving cars are not worth the risk. Not only will these machines take people's jobs, but they also have other faults that will affect humans. They are simply not completely ready and sophisticated enough to be used. Most importantly, these vehicles will put many people’s lives in danger.

       The use of self driving cars will create many issues that will affect many people. As according to the video titled, “The Pros and Cons of Autonomous Vehicles” by the Tech & innovations Channel, “According to certain estimates, about 4 million people are going to lose their jobs” due to the upbringing of self driving cars (autonomous vehicles). These jobs include taxi drivers, uber drivers, pilots, and others. Not only that, but one other issue that arises when talking about self driving cars is, “as technology progresses, the legal issues will follow. If your semiautonomous car's laser array skips over a pedestrian while you snooze and your car hits him, are you at fault? Is Google at fault? Is the lidar manufacturer? Is the pedestrian?” as said by the article titled “How Driverless Cars Will Work” by Jamie Page Deaton and Kristen Hall-Geisler for How Stuff Works. Who knows what type of legal problems these vehicles will cause. In summary, autonomous vehicles will hurt humans in ways that other then just driving, whether that is losing your job or putting you in a legal situation.

       On top of this, these cars are not intelligent enough to be put in use just yet. According to the article titled, “PUNY HUMANS STILL SEE THE WORLD BETTER THAN SELF-DRIVING CARS” by Aarian Marshall, “For all their sensors and computers, robocars still don't see or understand the world as well as we do with our eyeballs, ear canals, and brain folds. That's the takeaway from a new paper by University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute researcher Brandon Schoettle…” Thus, as of right now, humans are still more able than self driving cars. This same reasoning can be seen in the article titled, “Are We Ready For Driverless Cars?” compiled by Ibrahim Balkhy for NewsHour Extra, where they say that “Currently, the car’s sensors are unable to cope with poor weather conditions like heavy rain and snow-covered streets.” All in all, self driving cars are yet ready to be put on the road because of the simple fact that they are not yet smart enough.

       In contradictory, some people believe otherwise. That we should use self driving cars. One main reason for this belief is that some believe that the use of self driving cars will be much more convenient. They believe this because of the fact that self driving cars will be able to communicate with each other which will help make the driving be more comfortable and smooth. The problem with this though “...is that if their are not enough autonomous vehicles on the road we’ll have accidents cause if you don’t have 100% autonomous vehicles it means that you know regular cars will bump into you et cetera.” according to the video by Tech and Innovations Channel mentioned above. That self driving cars will really only be able to truly work (thus, be convenient) if every single car that is on the road is autonomous. This means that people will be forced to spend money if we (humans) decide on self driving cars. Another inconvenient financial loss is that comes with this is “many driverless cars require smooth roads, with clearly painted lines, to safely position themselves. Potholes and other irregularities could become even greater hazards. Our infrastructure is already underfunded. Where will the resources come from to maintain and repair roads and bridges to this new, higher standard?” according to the article titled, “Are Driverless Cars a Good Idea?” by Junior Scholastic. One other major rebuttal towards this idea that we should use self driving cars is, “humans also have fun driving tricks that the robots have yet to replicate... Humans are still better at reading signs, especially ones with lots of words. People have that fun, non-verbal communication thing going on–they can nod, wave other vehicles ahead, make eye contact that says, 'I know you’re here, and I won’t threaten your life with my hunk of steel.” according to the article titled “PUNY HUMANS STILL SEE THE WORLD BETTER THAN SELF-DRIVING CARS” by Aarian Marshall. Self driving cars do not have the same practicality as humans which may bring some inconveniences that many don’t think about. In fact, many also believe that self driving cars are worth the risk because of how they will be safer. Although, this is evidently not true as their is much more to safety with these machines that are shown below the surface.

       The most significant reason that self driving cars are not worth the risk is because of how they will put in people in hazardous situations. According to the article titled, “Are Driverless Cars a Good Idea?” by Junior Scholastic, “one of the claims made about driverless cars is that they don’t need as much safety gear because there will supposedly be fewer crashes, making the vehicles lighter and more fuel-efficient. That’s great—until an old-school pickup truck rams into your Google car.” In other words, due to how autonomous cars will be lighter, that also means that they will have less protection just in case they do get in an accident. In addition, according to the “The Pros and Cons of Autonomous Vehicles” video by Tech & innovations Channel, another disadvantage “...is hacking, because there's a lot of computers, a lot of cameras and sensors. One of the concerns is that people will be able to hack and even route your car to a different direction that you don't want to go.” By stepping foot into one of these vehicles, we truly may be risking our life. Moreover, using self driving cars will put not only us, but possibly many others in harm.

       Self driving cars are not worth the risk. Self driving cars will simply cause humans inconveniences and they aren’t even ready to be put into use. Another big factor is how self driving cars will put people into scary positions. We cannot allow these vehicles to be put into use. These machines will hurt us in more then they will actually help us and they are not worth possibility of failure.
















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