Whether you drive every day or on occasion, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you have seen someone that should probably not be behind the wheel. Some drivers can be careless and thoughtless when it comes to the safety of others, whether it’s because they’re on their cell phone or just distracted by daily life. Unless you live in a major city that offers excellent public transportation, you will have to own and operate your own car to get to work or visit friends and family.
Some car manufacturers are considering the option of manufacturing self-driving cars that would all but eliminate the need for an actual human driver. These cars sound like they would be the answer to a serious problem, but are they actually safe? For this blog, we will be looking at the pros and cons to self-driving cars and why, at this time, people still prefer sharing the road with other drivers.
PROS
No distracted driving
There’s no denying the fact that drivers that maneuver the roads while distracted are the cause of many accidents. Our cell phones, radios, even food can turn the safest driver into a dangerous one. Self-driving cars would eliminate the driver from the entire equation and allow the car to drive itself.
Less traffic
If cars on the road are being operated autonomously, there will be no need to cut in front of other cars to get ahead of the line. To get ahead, many drivers will cut off other drivers, causing them to hit their brakes and causing cars behind that to brake. This chain effect is what causes a lot of heavy traffic and would surely be eliminated if the driver of the car was a robot and was programmed to stay a safer distance behind the car in front of it.
CONS
Expensive
Just like anything cutting edge, these self-driving cars will not be for the everyday American worker. Although it’s likely that once this kind of technology becomes more and more developed over time, it’ll decrease in price, that’s not likely to happen shortly after their release.
More tech, more could go wrong
To my knowledge, there’s no way to hack into the system of a 1960 Camaro, unless it has a computer system installed in it from today. These autonomous cars have the potential to bring about great changes in our road systems, but they also leave a door open for hackers to manipulate their systems. Beyond that, this kind of technology is not entirely new to us, but it most likely will come with its share of missteps and malfunctions after release.