Once again the controversy is roused! Are autonomous cars good for humans or not? The case of Uber where its self-driving car met with an accident by hitting a human driven car in Tempe, Arizona State of the U.S.A. during the testing.
Autonomous vehicles are revolutionizing the automobile industry by incorporating robust IT technologies in the manufacturing of the ultra-modern and highly sensible automobiles. It’s time to adopt smart transportation that boosts the mobility of vehicles across the globe. Just take a ride in a semi or fully autonomous car around you and experience the luxury of the driverless vehicle.
If you are aware of the number of accidents took place due to autonomous vehicles, you would not find them reliable and safe enough to travel. Have a quick look at some of the cases where self-driving cars have hurt the humans or other vehicles.
Uber
In March 2017, Uber’s Volvo SUV car has been involved in a crash in Arizona. The car had been hit two human driven cars and flipped onto the road. Well, during the investigation, Tempe police found no one was injured in the incident. Uber has confirmed that the vehicle didn’t carry any backseat passenger. When the accident took place, the car was in the self-driving mode.
In December 2016, another incident occurred with Uber in California when its self-driving vehicle ran a red light. Uber blamed this occurrence as a human error and not the fault of its autonomous car.
Tesla
Tesla has a terrible record as the company lost its driver (Joshua Brown) in this accident. The incident occurred on the 7th of May 2016. Autopilot system is the key crux of Tesla’s autonomous cars. According to Tesla, the sensor of Model S failed in recognizing a large white 18-wheel truck and trailer crossing the highway. The car was on autopilot mode when the accident took place.
In another incident, Tesla’s Model X hit a Phoenix police motorcycle on 21st March 2017. This time both the vehicles and drivers are safe. In this case, the officer was in front of the Tesla car and stopped at a stoplight. The car also stopped for a while, but then started moving ahead. The police officer jumped off his motorcycle and moved away. The driver of the Tesla car confessed that the car was on autopilot mode when the incident occurred.
Tesla produces semi-autonomous cars that require the constant engagement of the driver. Even the company website clearly conveys that after exiting highways, drivers are in control of their vehicles.
Google’s self-driving cars are also not the exceptional case in this matter. One of the Google’s vehicles, Lexus SUV, has been involved in a crash with a public bus on 14th February 2016 in California. No one was injured in the accident, but both car and bus were damaged externally. The person who was in the car during the incident admitted that he assumed the bus would slow down and let the car out. So he didn’t take control of car’s self-deriving a computer.
These are the few names who are having the best autonomous cars with bad records due to serious technology and human errors. The big players of self-driving cars involve Daimler, Ford, Volvo Apple, and more.
A few negative results cannot conclude the technology as worthless for the humanity. Concept of the autonomous car is becoming a trend in the automobile industry as more and more automobile giants joining this race.
Industry experts believe the autonomous cars reduce the ratio of accidents in comparison to human driving vehicles. They also accused intervention of human driven cars is responsible for the accidents. If every car would be a self-driven, there will be a tremendous reduction in the number of accidents.
I do not agree with this. I think the autonomous car technology is still in evolving stage and requires significant enhancement and development so that robots or computers can take over a complete control on the car without human intervention. They have to improve the capabilities of sensors to spot the risks on the road. Innovation and implementation of futuristic technologies enable people to have a ride in an autonomous car with guaranteed safety.
What to Expect from Self-Driving Vehicles?
The way automobile market leaders are taking interest and investing money and efforts in developing fully automated smart vehicles, the smart car industry will be at peak in next five years. Cutting-edge inventions and real-time implementation of robust technologies improve the reliability and affordability of the self-driving vehicles.
Autonomous car technology itself is an avant-garde one. When it integrates with other modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, etc., It will create miracles for humankind. Want to explore how autonomous vehicles will optimize our daily life? Here are a few examples of the future of human beings with smart automobiles.
- Autonomous cars will track the traffic singles, zebra crossings, lanes, speed breakers, etc. using the sensors. This will reduce the ratio of misfortunes by following the traffic rules punctually. For example; if there is a speed breaker ahead, the sensor instructs the car to slow down the speed.
- IoT integrated smart vehicles will be connected with each item situated around. Cars can interact with road infrastructure and detect the real-time situation on the road. For example; IoT connects everything around us. If sensors identify a person is moving ahead in the same direction of the car and there are chances the car will hit him, the car interacts with the person’s smartphone. The person will receive a notification in his mobile that a car is moving forward to him and he will simply move away from the way of the car.
- In future, every car interacts with each other to maintain speed and distance from other vehicles. This will reduce the number of accidents as robots and computer are based on its pre-set algorithms and accurately follow all the instructions. For example; the car can identify the distance from other smart vehicles on the road while driving and react accordingly by maintaining a specific speed, distance, angle, etc. This will surely decline the rate of road accidents.
- The old, disabled and blind people will get maximum benefits out of the autonomous vehicle as they do not need to drive the car or to depend on drivers for any ride. They can enjoy exclusive freedom.
- Augmented Reality integrated self-driving car will provide an exclusively localized experience. It will help riders by figuring out the weather condition of a predefined route; the smart vehicles save the life of drivers and people. For example; if the weather situation of a route indicates about a snow storm or heavy rain, the sensor detects the danger in advance and notifies the driver to make an appropriate decision.
- Machine readable augments reality enables autonomous cars to deliver a smooth riding experience to the people. For example; the self-driving vehicles constantly interact and track the surface of the road, whether it is smooth or rough and maintain the speed and lane accordingly.
- After the assured success of autonomous cars, the next target of the automobile manufacturers would be to produce the sleeper car. There will be no need to awake for the entire night to track and maintain the car’s riding activities.
- Autonomous cars will detect the current position of other self-driving vehicles that are riding not only on the same road but also in nearby areas. It will also display the entire journey route of other animus vehicles in a map view. It will help the driver to identify when and where the other automobiles will cross his vehicle.
Though there are a few risk factors, people are excited to adopt this concept which clearly indicates the immense progress of the industry. I guess we all will have at least one autonomous car in the near future as it simplifies human life dramatically.
So, are you ready to adapt and explore a new riding or driving experience with autonomous car? Here we have presented a few glimpses of the self-driving car technology. The real picture would be larger than what is described here.
Getting a brief understanding about latest industry trends and technologies is the passion of Intuz team. We always look for the advanced innovations that optimize and add value to human life by simplifying the way we are living. Stay tune with us and read our knowledge sharing blogs on a regular basis to catch most recent technological updates.
Image Credit: Wired | autonocion | Gizmodo
