As technology becomes smarter and smarter, society has hit a point where moral dilemmas are becoming a hot topic in the world of automation. One of the most exciting new technologies, I think, is the self driving car. Cars have had technology assisted driving for almost a decade now (rear-view backup camera, self-parallel parking, remote start, etc.), but we have finally reached the point where self-driving cars have hit the market. Unfortunately, that means we have also reached the point where these self-driving cars get someone killed. So what should we do?
As the articles state, Tesla’s autopilot had been used on public highways for tens of millions of miles before causing a single fatality. I think this reflects a lot of the misunderstanding behind automation and where society is at in terms of its implementation. Automation is a very new technology in the realm of day-to-day life, so it still seems very unorganized to many people. To me, it feels like we are living in the “wild west” days of robotics because we simply do not have a lot of rules regarding what they can or cannot do. This is important because the laws and regulations we put in place for robots now will dictate the kinds of advancements that can be made in this area of technology. Because of that, I think it is very important for people to understand just what kind of technology they have access to (driver assist, not full autopilot) in order to use them properly and not misattribute unfortunate events to the technology itself.
On the topic of self-driving cars, I do think that this is one of the most important areas in which this kind of technology can be implemented. Humans are bad drivers and there is almost no way to communicate with other cars on the road (except brake lights and blinkers, but HUMANS don’t even use those all the time). With self driving cars we have the ability to create a network of cars that can all communicate with one another. No more accidentally changing lanes into someone else’s car or failing to see that the cars in front of you just halted to a stop. Autonomous cars can already help you with these things. The really interesting thing is what this means for traffic. Cars that can communicate and adjust speeds accordingly would make things like highway merging more efficient (read: less slowing down) and intersections wouldn’t need stop signs or stoplights. These are also the areas of roads that see the most human error and the most accidents, but these could be greatly reduced through the use of computers and inter-car connections. Obviously this kind of stoplight-eliminating technology is a long way off, but it is something that could be possible if companies are given enough time to develop technology that can be more affordable for average drivers.