Why Driver-less Cars

While driver-less cars are trying to enhance road safety, reduce traffic congestion, and lowering the environmental impact, however they will need to address significant challenges related to technology, regulation and public trust.

How do driver-less cars work? Driver-less cars have so many features to them. They have a radar that includes units on the rear bumpers that trigger an alert or when they detect a car in a blind spot. Another feature is lane keeping. This is a windshield mounted camera that detects the lines and road surface and It will vibrate the steering wheel to alert the driver. Driver-less cars have a sensor on top of the car called lidar, “It sends out rapid pulses of non visible light and measures the time they take to bounce off objects and return” (Resource 1). They can calculate the time and cars distance from an object and build a 3d image of the environment. There is an onboard computer in the car itself that makes the decision to steer, brake and accelerate, this system allows for the computer to self learn about its encounterments and surroundings.

Driver-less cars are still in working progress so it’s safe enough for the environment. Ever since the Tesla Model S incident they don’t know what caused the accident if it was a glitch, software update or the driver was distracted, all they know is that nor the driver or autopilot know the trailer was next to them and didn’t apply the brake. Tesla’s autopilot also uses the cameras and radars to detect and avoid obstacles. “This seemed to be an issue at play in the fatal Tesla crash, where the one sensor that did spot the truck misinterpreted it as a road sign overhead”(resource 3). This is a cause why driver-less cars should still be in the works for some improvements until fully affected for everyday use.

The new technology for driver-less cars involves sensors, machine learning, and adaptability for the cars to know there surroundings and it is also used for transportation. These driver-less cars aren’t safe yet for the environment because they causes so much havoc on the roads. So many things can happen with the driver-less car system it can be hacked, it doesn’t detect bad weather, roadwork, humans and other vehicles. “It’s not just the humans inside cars with self-driving technology, but those in other vehicles that need to be vigilant. Accident rates involving driver-less cars are twice as high as for regular cars”(Resource 3).

However driver-less cars might be great for the economy in the future, the technology isn’t always correct. In summary you should not rely on the auto pilot while it doesn’t detect the right things at times.

“File:Google driverless car at intersection.gk.jpg” by Grendelkhan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.