The idea of having cars that can do the driving for us is something we are getting close to. The stresses and dangers of driving could be eradicated by not controling a car. At this point we are not quite there; cars are not driverless and may cause more harm than good in situation that sensors can not yet deal with. Human control is important and relaxing too much can cause problems with that. Not having to think about driving and instead just enjoying the ride is something that most desire, but the safety of these vehicals has to be taken into consideration.

Driving can be a stressful part of one's day and eliminating the need to pay such close attention and relax is what most people want. Right now, driving involves paying close attention to everything around a car and features within the car as well. All of this can be stressful and hectic and the ability to mess up and cause damage to ones own self, someone else, or to property becomes too easy. Smart cars not only get rid of the stresses of driving, but include safety features that could do better that a human. Sensors are the main factor of making these cars work and have safety features that can, "..apply brakes on individual wheels and reduce power from the engine, allowing far better response and control than a human driver could manage." At this point smart cars still involve a human element with drivers still having to take over in difficult situations. To get drivers attention many ideas have come about. Some such as the in-car entertainment system even allow for leisure and then turn off when a driver when they need to take over. All of these features sound nice, but is it really that much safer?

The cars that have been developed and even the ones proposed for the near future are not completly driverless. That means that drivers have to stay alert. There are systems to alert a driver, but if a driver is relaxed the transition could be difficult. It would not be a completly stress free ride if a driver has to think about when they will have to take over and in what difficult situation that would be in, because drivers are expected to take over in difficult situations. "Google cars aren't truly driverless; they still alert the driver to take over when pulling in and out of driveways of dealing with complicated traffic issues, such as navigating through roadwork of accidents." When learning to drive we may reach a point that what is primarily being taught is the dificult things and when the computer stops working one would just have to get off the road or drive dangorously. Or we could reach the point that teaching people how to drive stops. Once we reach the point of not needing a human driver people become completly at the mercy of a computer and we lose the ability to drive because we don't need to know how. Computers can always malfunction and then it's not even a human at fault when people die because of it. Driving teaches control, awareness, and even patience, if a computer is doing all that those life skills are not readily learned and lost to more people. These factors do not sound any better to me.

I think we should have smart cars, but with the right percautions and keeping an element of human control. Sensors giving warnings and keeping drivers alert should be enough to help with the safety concerns. Stress is reduced in this situation because a driver has the help of the sensors, but is not relient upon it either. The systems that allow entertainment are too controled by a computer and cause issues with transitioning between relaxing and paying attention to driving. Driving still has to be taught and if a computer dosen't work humans still have the knowledge to take over without extra danger.

Having humans do more of the controling, but having safety features sounds like the best thing to me. It still reduces stress because sensors are used as early warning systems and features keeping one alert. Skills that go along with driving are not lost and a driver doesn't get too relaxed. Drivers are not completely relient upon a device that could malfunction, but the help is not gone. The idea of doing nothing sounds nice, but I just don't think it is the safest option.