Personal Statement on Self Driving Cars: Are They Beneficial

In the following essay, I seek to explore the future of self-driving cars and why humans don’t entirely like the idea of autonomous vehicles. I also hope to discuss the subtle issues that drastically question and impact the use of autonomous vehicles, and how automobile companies are designing ways around them.

According to a report by the American Automobile Association (AAA), 63 percent of Americans feared riding in a self-driving car, with just 13 percent trusting the technology. This points to a mystifying argument, it’s not the cars but, the humans who are not ready for shifting to this new era of transportation.

It is difficult for companies to convince people for the notion of self-driving cars, the reason being they fear the unconventional-fundamental design of not having a steering in a self-driving car. Therefore, for now more than serving any practical function, the steering wheel must be there as a mere prevention for the fears of the driver, if somehow self-driving car losses control. This is a quintessential human trait. We refuse to adopt a change which visibly disempowers us or slews from our presumed pattern of practice. Even if the change is better than us, we tend not give away the control - in this instance, AI in autonomous vehicles which is safer than a human driver.

For years, we have mainly focused on improving the technology to enhance our experience and might have overlooked the psychology behind it. In the recent years, automotive companies like Mercedes, Tesla, Jaguar, GM have followed a gradualist approach towards appealing people into accepting the notion of self-driving cars. Thus, replacing the need of a human driver with intelligent computer assistant in piecemeal steps rather than in a single radical change. Therefore, introducing technologies like adaptive cruise control, smart summon, ADAS and advanced braking systems, which serve as added functionalities but, prepare us for a drastic change.

How can we make it a smooth transition? From “steering’”to “no steering”! Theatre design can be used in self-driving cars to increase the safety, by giving effects that make a pseudo-experience for the user as well as people around. For instance, modern electric cars are so much quieter than their internal-combustion predecessors, it’s much harder for pedestrians to hear them approaching. Since we’re used to listening for engine noise as a safety cue, a silent vehicle can more readily “sneak up” on us and cause accidents. For this, we can use something called artificial engine noise, in which a playback recording based on the noise made by an internal combustion engine can be played to alert pedestrians and even pleasures the user. In one of the recent projects by Jaquar, they have tried to ‘engineer’ human trust by 'developing a driverless pod with eyes that signal the vehicle's intent to human observers/pedestrian'. People are starting to feel more comfortable around self-driving cars and projects like these surely paint a safer future.

One of the well know problems faced by Self-driving cars is the ethical question in an emergency such as an accident. Imagine yourself in a situation where one way is to either drive on to some people on a bridge, maybe including children, or just taking your car off the bridge and saving those people on your way. Even for humans, it is difficult to judge which way to go. Although as the technology is improving, we better put a way where we can save everyone both the driver and people stuck on the way. Maybe we develop better brakes and Artificial Intelligence sensing system, which could tell what’s gone happen and alert the driver way before. Deciding between one of those two options shouldn’t be our only choice!

So, would I like to sit in one? Yes, I’ll be more than happy to sit in one of them and maybe own one of them. It is a completely different approach to driving from years. Cars have seen transformations for a long time, and I feel, this is the most advanced one until now. One might also be able to drink and drive in a self-driving car! Isn’t that cool?