People Aren’t Nearly as Good at Driving as We Think.
Even the most cautious drivers can have an off day. In addition to mistakes in typically “safe” conditions, humans are also susceptible to accidents in cases o f fatigue, stress, or driving under the influence. Around the world, nearly 4000 people are killed each day in traffic accidents. A Google car will never take its “eyes” off the road to interact with a passenger, for instance. In these areas, Google cars have human drivers beat.
Google Self-Driving Cars Don’t Drive the Way That Humans Do.
When we think of automated driving machines, we tend to think of cars that drive as quickly and efficiently as they can at all times. This is a natural assumption, but in the case of the Google car, it is completely wrong. Google cars were originally programmed to be aggressive and efficient drivers. This aggression had some unexpected consequences not for the the cars, but for their passengers.
Google self driving cars with the aggression meter turned all the way up tended to make sudden frequent stops. At high speed, these stops were found to scare the humans who were along for the ride. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the way that the cars performed, Google engineers chose to dial back the amount of aggression for a smoother overall ride.
Google Cars Aren’t Born Cute, They’re Designed That Way.
Tweaking the way that self-driving cars drive is one way that Google hopes make humans feel comfortable about self-driving cars; a friendly outer appearance is another. The rounded shapes and almost human-looking exteriors of Google self-driving cars are designed to look as cute as possible. Even though state of the art tech lies under the hood, Google’s design teams know that a non-threatening appearance is the key to getting humans to accept driverless cars.
Autonomous Cars Have a Long Road Ahead.
Even though Google’s self-driving cars have clocked an impressive amount of miles, much work remains to be done. Some of the problems that autonomous cars and their designers struggle with are the same types of problems that human drivers face every day. Self-driving cars need to detect when it is safe to proceed and when to hang back for a little longer just as humans in the driver’s seat do.
When approaching an intersection or crosswalk, google self-driving cars go through the same sort of hesitation and decision making that human drivers face. Although Google cars are getting better at this sort of decision making, it remains one of the biggest challenges for the thousands of engineers and software programmers who work on Google’s self-driving car project.
Self-Driving Cars Are Much More Than a New Way to Drive.
The Google self-driving car is rightly seen as a convenient additional option for the millions of drivers that are currently on the road today. While the potential benefit of self-driving cars to existing drivers is obvious, these cars have the potential to be much more than just a driver’s accessory. For the millions of people around the world who cannot drive due to physical or mental disabilities, a self-driving car represents a never before experienced level of freedom.
More Than Transportation: a Car Is a Lifeline.
The transformative power of the automobile is undeniable. Entire cities have risen because of the availability of cheap, private transportation. The automobile as a privately owned asset has also helped individuals make the leap from one economic level to the next. The only other modern example of such a transformative technology is that of the internet. It is fitting then that Google’s self-driving car combines both of these transformative technologies into something that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
The internet has changed the lives of drivers just as much as the automobile changed lives before it. A driver in Lubbock, Texas can now apply for Texas title loans online and get results in minutes for a search that might have taken months before the internet was available. Much the same way, self-driving cars will also create unexpected benefits in every aspect of driver’s lives.
Pros: Google Self-Driving Cars
Self-driving cars aren’t prone to human error.
Reduced accidents significantly lower the cost of insuring vehicles.
Self driving cars reduce fuel consumption and traffic congestion.
Cons: Google Self-Driving Cars
Self-driving cars require additional driver training to ensure safe operation.
The benefits of self-driving cars require widespread adoption. If large numbers of people don’t use self-driving cars, their benefit will be negligible.
Cars with self-driving car technology could be vulnerable to computer hacking in a way that current cars are not.
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