Thursday 13 August 2015

Driverless Cars in the Future

   Maneuvering a car in the streets is accompanied with various ethical and moral decisions. The driver has to decide when to speed up, when to take his eyes off the road or whether he stops when approaches traffic light that turns red. These are just some of the things that a driver must consider in order to uphold and maintain the safety in the streets not only for himself but for everybody. These decisions contain both practical and moral components to the driver which are eliminated in the presence of driverless car. Indeed with the advancement in technology and the continuous venture in coming up with extraordinary and practical inventions, a driverless car is very possible to rule the leading and busy streets in the future.
   A driverless car can be operated using the integration of sensors and pre-programmed logic in order to evaluate and respond to several situations such as sharing the road with other vehicles, adjusting with pedestrians[1]. This has been the main concern of the technologists and ethicists when it comes to inventing the future cars. They have the goal of creating driverless cars that can outperform the human skills in driving and routines in the streets. These cars apparently have better perceptive abilities and faster reaction rate as compared to human drivers. Moreover these new technology are free from any form of distractions such as using the phone, eating, drowsiness or physical discomforts and emergencies  that may occur when the driver experienced heart attack or stroke.
   According to survey 90% of vehicle crashes are caused by human error, hence it is the goal of the inventors to minimize this prevalence of accidents through the driverless car[2]. They are expecting that an automaton like can remarkably decrease the accidents without launching new form of mistakes.
   Though there are perceived possibilities of accidents, a driverless car is programmed with higher precision in detecting potential hazards and has connection with higher precision of human-eye connection. This can definitely reduce moral dilemmas that human drivers are encountering.   While it is true that most of the high-end vehicle in the market today is equipped with high degree of automaton, still these driverless cars are made more sophisticated. It is invented with remarkable adaptive cruise control, precise lane-keeping technology and accident-detection censors. This technology can definitely reduce the risks of accidents and moral issues that most drivers have been encountering while maneuvering vehicles in the street[3]. It is therefore, one of the concerns of the manufacturers to provide technological solutions in the invention of driverless car in order to enhanced safety and awareness.




1. Kirkpatrick, Keith. The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars. 2015. Communications of ACM    (58) 8. 19-20. http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/8/189836-the-moral-challenges-of-driverless-cars/fulltext
2. Kirkpatrick, Keith. The Moral Challenges of Driverless Cars. 2015. Communications of ACM    (58) 8. 19-20.  http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/8/189836-the-moral-challenges-of-driverless-cars/fulltext
3. Ibid., 19. 

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