Cons of Driveless Cars

By: Mahogani ......

Imagine that you are driving a smartcar, not having to pay much attention because the car is driving itself. A small group of middleschoolers are crossing the road, since you are not paying attention you hit the smallest child by accident. You are sued for reckless driving and endangerment of minors. That is the possiblilies when you are driving a smartcar, although they are improving the models they are very far from being used in public saftey. Which is why, the development of smart cars are unsafe, too expensice, and cause more confusion on the driver.

Smartcars are not protective of the driver, and those around them. In the article, "They can steer, accelerate, and brake themselves, but all are designed to notify the driver when the road ahead requires human skills, such as navigation through work zones and arround accidents." (7). In other words, the car is controlling the whole driving experience. That could be very dangerous because what if the motion sensor is tampered with. The driver should be paying attention but it only takes a split second for an accident to happen. The text also says, "Other options under consideration are flashing lights on the windshield and other heads-up displays."(7). These seem helpful, but the flashing lights could cause medical issues to arise. If a person that has serve seizures, the flashing lights may trigger them to have a seizure. Therefore their body spasm would lead to an accident. Some people may say that "Such displays can be turned off instantly when the driver needs to take over-- something not avaiable to drivers trying to text with a cell phone."(8). That may be true, but how will the car know if the driver is texting? Smartcars are not alive, and they will malfunction from time to time. So giving this life or death responsibility to a nonliving object is very unpredictable, and unsafe.

Smartcar advangements are very expensive to continue with very vase options of safety. In the article," Radar was a device on a hilltop that cost two hundred million dollars." (6). In other words, each smartcar will be sold for two hundred million dollars, when you think about it that is only a fifth of the faction it cost to build this car. They need sponsors to pay for research and development. They also have to test it and start over if it fails the testing. If it is too high not that many people will buy it so the company will be losing money for not being able to make personal gains from it. Most people believe that people will make a way to afford it if they know its abilities. That may be true, but they will have to give them statics to prove that is it safe. But if it is not a high percentage of safety, no one would take that chance of it being in an accident for it.

Smart cars causes confusion for the driver. In the text, " The Google car simply announces when the driver should be prepared to take over."(7). In other words, the car drives until a certain point and its up to the driver to know when it transitions out. There are many malfunction that may accure durning that transition process. Some say that the car watches you drive while you focus on the road. That may be very helpful for insurances purpose, but it could cause some issues to the driver. It could be very distracting that the car is showing you how you are driving. It shows up on a little television underneth the radio. Therefore confusing the driver if they happen to look down.

In conclustion, smart cars are not protective, expensice, and causes confusion which is why they should not continue with the development.