News

The Driverless Car

It’s something that we have covered before and no doubt CAVA will be covering again in the future. We wanted to do something a little different this week and draw up an opinion piece to discuss the proposed future of the automotive industry. Where do you stand on the idea of Driverless Cars? The notion of driverless cars, to me conjures up images that wouldn’t be out of place in The Fifth Sense, with hovering taxis whizzing by in our skies but the reality is a lot less sci-fi and a lot more of a real possibility than first thought. Driverless cars are currently being tested in London, Coventry, Milton Keynes and Bristol, with testing increasing and advancing technology becoming more and more integral to the modern day car. After reading up on several pieces, CAVA has weighed up the pros and cons.

FOR

Technology has always helped those who are at a disadvantage, from computer software to assist with learning, to wheelchairs and advances in treatments, so why should a car be any different? One of the points we’ve seen raised on numerous occasions around this debate is that a driverless car would give someone who is at a disadvantage, an opportunity and freedom. It would be safer, for elderly or invalid drivers to use a car that they don’t control. The biggest cause of road traffic accidents is human error, so would taking away the human mean that this grizzly statistic falls? Statistics as high as 80% blame human error for the majority of accidents, with the remaining 20% being due to road or vehicle conditions. Another argument for driverless cars is that in certain circumstances, such as icy weather, it may be beneficial to have technology at the wheel rather than a human. We all know that the UK overreacts at the slightest sign of snow, so would not being behind the wheel in the same sense, reduce this mayhem? Congestion has been a big point in this debate and links well to the idea that driverless cars really could be better for our environment. Take Mercedes electronic tow bar as the mere beginnings, saving fuel by reducing the need to dive, particularly for long haul truck drivers. One point raised has been that throughout major cities all over the world, from Paris and London to Barcelona and Cologne, city bikes have really caught on. They’ve offered an alternative way to travel and that’s exactly what the driverless car could do in the future, driverless cars could actually be the start of  decline in traffic on our roads. Productivity is a word that is thrown around in businesses day in, day out. Driverless cars and productivity are in no way related I hear you say, oh but they could be. Perhaps relaxation could replace that word too, depending on your mood. I regularly use public transport and see people frantically typing emails before or after work or organising meeting notes. On the other hand there’s people watching videos on their phones or reading a good book. None of these things can be done whilst driving at the minute but if we were to start treating driverless cars more like trains or buses then we could begin to see a new age of car sharing and getting more done.

AGAINST

It’s not gone that well so far. There have been accidents, there has even been a fatality. Tesla had been testing it’s autopilot features earlier in the year, using sensors and cameras combined with wireless technology and high tech software. The unfortunate fatality highlights that to be safe on the roads, we as humans must still respect the danger that surround us and not let our fate rest in an autopilot system. Tesla “Tesla specifically tells drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and to remain engaged when Autopilot is on. The software is meant to be an aid to driving, and not to take over driving completely.” Tesla has made headlines again recently with hackers taking over the remote control access of a vehicle from 12 miles away, if people are already abusing this sort of technology whilst it’s developing, will we ever reach a point where it is safe to let a car drive us whilst we’re not actively engaged in what’s happening? There are limitations to technology, no computer can see how a human sees. I think we are a long way off cars being able to understand and react like humans can to unexpected driving circumstances. Even temporary lights or road works are currently proving to challenge the driverless cars being tested. There is always the danger of over complicating of course, the more we teach an automated system to do, the more scope there is for failings. How many time has your laptop or phone frozen or randomly shut down? Overloading a system that is in charge of your life sounds like a risky idea to me! As pilot Chesley Sullenberger wisely states; “Technology is no substitute for experience, skill and judgment,” We should be encouraging less use of cars and more use of public or alternative modes of transport. The safest forms of transport are the ones that humans don’t tend to manipulate as much. I’m not trying to say that pilots don’t really do much to get us from A to B but the safety involved is so much higher than those on the roads. Everything about a plane journey is decided with careful consideration of safety. A fatal plane accident occurs once in every 2 million flights, compared to the 1960s where satellite and cockpit technology were literally decades behind what they are now, with a fatal accident occurring once every 200,000 flights. By altering the car and adding in enough gadgets to make James Bond sweat, are we doing more harm than good or are we on our way to improved road safety and improved statistics? There are concerns that our economy is at stake, with the risk of a loss of jobs for those working in public transport or the Taxi industry, who have already faced a shake up with the likes of Uber recently. Uber have caused further furore after announcing that they too are testing autonomous cars. The company have defended their decision in a statement, noting that self driving have “the potential to save millions of lives and improve quality of life for people around the world”. “1.3m people die every year in car accidents and 94pc of those accidents involve human error,” they added. Where do you stand in this debate? It’s certainly one that has people from all walks of life discussing the future of the automotive industry, even if they themselves aren’t currently drivers, it’s something that could affect everyone in future. We’d love to hear your views, share them with us on social media.