Self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles are already here and it is no news that a lot of companies are institutions are working towards making this a viable systems in the near future.
But, some people are concerned about this change and the situation that many people might find themselves in when this will happen.
Before getting into all that, first let's check out out of my favorite scenes from the TV series Silicon Valley
In case, the video above isn't working them here's the gist of it.
"Great London horse manure crisis of 1894, the industrial revolution had flocking to the city and more people equals more horses and more horses equals more manure, and it predicted that by the middle of the next century there will be 9 feet of manure, covering the streets. But what no one saw coming was a new technology that will completely obliterate those concerns, the car. Overnight the manure problem vanished."
Where I stand
From the above video/ quote you may already have guessed where I stand on the topic, I am all in for it and can't wait for it to be implemented.
Through I acknowledge what problems it might bring:
Loss of jobs to cab drivers
Loss of the driving experience
Thrill of the sports car
Reliance on the centrally managed autonomous system
All these concerns are valid and have merit, however that's what disruptive technology is. It bring a change in the way society works. And if a new technology and/ or system can improve lives then it is worth seriously considering.
Benefits of a driverless world
Imagine a world where no one drives car anymore, either you have a car that you can tell where to take you or you can call a robo-uber.
Where's the fun in that? you may ask
You can no longer get the thrill of getting in a fancy car to show off, you can't enjoy the driving experience, you can't control the speed of your journey, you loss control of the drive mechanics, you might get stuck in traffic if you take the main road, etc.
But that it the problem, the reasons listed above are what leads to congestion, traffic jam and accidents.
While self driving cars are still not ready to be deployed on roads they still have a better score on safety then the human drivers.
Humans as the emotional beings have a tendency to get excited, humans don't have the reaction time that is always accurate and prone to be affected by the stress, fatigue, sleepiness, hungry and bodily functions.
Computers are just efficient
In the perfect world less accidents will take place by making public roads completely driverless, except some enforcement agencies.
In this world there will be no traffic light, why you ask; I'll tell you.
Traffic lights exist because as a junction has traffic coming in from different directions, one side needs to stop in order to avoid collision. And when the first person hits brakes he slows down to stop at the red light in his reaction time, the person behind him/her will do the same only slower and so the nest person behind and so on. This will add up because humans deal with the data in front of them and the react accordingly. This will again be true when the light turns green and one by one the cars will start and move forward, one slower then the first.
As you can clearly see that this is not a efficient system.
In a autonomous system, every car will speak to the grid which will track the vehicles on the grid and tell them how much to speed up, slow down and turn in order to maintain a smooth operation. There will be no need for the traffic signal and no need to stop as the autonomous system will adjust everything to maintain and safe distance between cars without stopping.
What about fun?
Public roads should be safe and not for thrill seekers and I think most of us can agree on that. Same as we have ranches for people who like to rider horse, there will be tracks for people who want to drive cars.
This is already happening already, if you remember old Hollywood movies with big car chases then you would remember they would often use old American cars. Now a days in modern times those stunts are getting harder to perform because on the computers in the new cars are tuned to be safe from skidding. That is why many of the production units bring in a computer expert from the car manufacturer to disable some of these mechanics in order to perform stunts.
Job loss to driver
Now this is a real concern and loss of livelihood is a serious concern, however as the society improves the job role also tend to evolve. As the old job get automated new jobs will evolve and we cannot predict what the future job market will look like as same no one could have predicted the job of a computer coder during the industrial revolution.
It is true that getting truck driver to switch job to that of an IT job is going to be hard. But their will always be alternatives not everyone has to be in IT and if your job is getting automated then you should learn a new skill.
It might seem harsh to tell aging truck drivers to learn a new skill, but that what the future looks like and as the systems become more and more efficient then these jobs will eventual disappear over time.
What we need is a social system that help and maintain people who are affected by automation, with welfare and educational programs.
Because, the world keeps changing and as in the video we started with the new technology will replace the old.