Some time ago I had a long discussion with my father (someone who has a long history with cars starting with riding his father’s new Ford Model A) about the prospect of autonomous cars. I don’t have any particular knowledge on the topic, beyond working in an unrelated specialty of computer science. Though I do have experience being hit by a car. And I got a “C” in high-school auto shop class. So take everything I say with appropriate grains of salt.
I started out arguing that having a computer drive a car was a hopeless task. Think about what we have to do every time we drive: we have a multitude of different controls; we have to monitor other cars, pedestrians, bikes, animals, all moving in every direction; we have to monitor our location in the road and understand all the markings and signs to know where to go next. I am teaching my teenage daughter to drive, and I find more and more things to explain to her. There’s a reason we require them to practice with an adult in the car for quite a while before they can do this on their own.
Furthermore, I don’t have faith that we could even write software reliable enough to do all this. I have written about the sad state of software on this blog for many years. We all have to deal with lousy software every day. It should be self-evident that this is a problem.
Midway through this discussion I had a sudden realization: Humans are really awful at driving. I mean, really awful! We accept the fact that the most likely way for our children to die is due to a car. We just accept that cars will kill 40,000 each year (in the U.S.). The computer doesn’t have to be a perfect driver, just better than humans. The computer has a VERY low bar to clear. A computer isn’t going to drive drunk, or text while driving, or get road rage, or drive too fast on icy roads, etc. A computer may fail to notice a stop sign, or not notice the bicycle in the next lane, but humans do that ALL THE TIME!
Should we be terrified of getting into a autonomous car? Sure. Should we should also be terrified of getting in a car with Aunt Mildred? Absolutely! Or be afraid trying to walk across the street? Damn right!
The fundamental problem is that you have a ton of steel moving at high speeds to carry your (comparatively) tiny body from one place to another. It’s a waste of materials, resources, and lives, no matter who’s driving.