Tired of driving your own car? Want to have your car drive you? Well, you’re in luck. In the video above, Michio Kaku, world-renowned physicist and author, explains the probable future of cars. Cars and their technologies are beginning to change immensely in both their appearances and their abilities, which may mean a vast advancement from the cars we see driving down Park Avenue today.
Automation is the next clear step in car technology. The United States Government is preparing to launch a research initiative to examine the safety, reliability, and efficiency of automated car technologies. Google is in the process of developing automated vehicles like the driverless car, and members of the NHTSA have been working with Google to take safety measures and precautions for automated cars. Google even has a type of driverless car that is already legal in the states of California, Florida and Nevada.
Future automatic cars have the potential to save many lives that are lost as a result of car crashes and accidents on the road. They hold promise to reduce car-related casualties. As Michio Kaku mentioned in his video, terms like “traffic accidents” and “traffic jams” may even disappear from the English language. These automatic cars will be much more attentive and careful in their driving than humans could ever be. But the norm of cars today may not last much longer. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a technology professionals association, has projected that autonomous vehicles will likely make up 75 percent of cars on the road by 2040.
The future of cars will be an interesting one. You will not drive your car; it will drive you. Look forward to a near future filled with technological surprises. Dreading your driver’s test? Have no fear, for driverless cars will be coming to a street near you!
While you wait, take a look at a test ‘drive’ of a Google driverless car below. Soon enough, that could be you in that ‘driver’s’ seat.
On paper, everything seems fine. More technology? More careful driving? Less accidents? All of that sounds great. Ideal in fact. But what about real moments off of paper and onto the road? What happens with the moments where drivers use a human’s intuition as their guide? With this comes the concern of ethics when dealing with these machines-to-be.
If your car is completely in control because of its automation, it cannot make moral decisions that may be necessary. It leaves us out of control. Take this scenario, for example: Your car is speeding along a bridge when a bus carrying tens of innocent children crosses its path. The choices here are not abundant. (1) Your car may swerve, risking your life in the midst of incoming traffic to save the children. (2) The car may continue straight ahead to risk your life. With limited time to make a decision, the computer will have to take matters into its own “hands.” If this type of thing is beyond human reach, how can we be sure this computer will make the ‘right’ decision?
This article is awesome – it reminds me of the questions about robots that do surgery, and to what degree we lose power over the technology that we use. It’s important to take all the good with the bad.