Dec 16 2008
Crashless Cars: A Moral Imperative
A fascinating recent article by Steven Ashley in the Scientific American is entitled, “Crashless Cars: Making Driving Safer.” It describes some of the remarkable safety systems that are currently being experimented with in automobiles and the kinds of improvements that – within the next 5 to 10 years – could greatly reduce the frequency of collisions by enabling cars themselves to take charge of situations where drivers cannot react with sufficient speed or simply have not been paying attention.
What is even more impressive is that the technology to create functional robotic cars already exists. The conclusion of the article states that “In 2007 a tricked-out Chevrolet Tahoe nicknamed ‘Boss’ and several similar driverless vehicles successfully navigated through a realistic city streetscape in Victorville, Calif., one complete with other cars and even traffic jams. The autonomous cars and trucks were competing in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Urban Challenge, a race designed to demonstrate that robot road vehicles can become practical. Soon afterward General Motors CEO G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., predicted his company will market autonomous vehicles within 10 years. That prognostication may be a bit optimistic, but his statement surely points the way to real robotic cars in the not too distant future.”
Mr. Ashley reports that driver error is the primary cause of the vast majority of accidents today. The fact remains that human beings are easily distracted, often tired and incapable of alertness, and frequently engaged in a futile and dangerous effort to multi-task while driving. Taking the control of fast, potentially deadly vehicles out of human hands and into the power of reliable, always rational, always responsive automated systems is therefore a moral imperative – as it would save about 39,000 lives per year.
Unfortunately, as Mr. Ashley’s article documents, many American drivers are still wedded to the notion that full human “control” or “mastery” over the vehicle is somehow indispensably desirable and even liberating. To such drivers, I say this: “Your car is a means of transportation, not a means of self-expression. Its primary aim should be to get you from one place to another in one piece, not to give you some silly psychic thrill. Express yourself in ways that will hurt neither you nor others, please!” The long-standing cultural assumption that driving one’s own car is somehow a manifestation of autonomy or independence needs to be challenged. I, for one, look forward to the day when robotic cars will be doing all the driving for me. I want to live, and I, as a human being, am keenly aware of the limitations to my responsiveness as well as to the emotional composure that is necessary to drive safely and competently. Therefore, I urge all drivers to embrace automated vehicle safety systems as soon as they become affordable. For most of my readers, this recommendation extends to their next car purchase.
Sincerely,
Gennady Stolyarov II
