The idea of cars that don’t need humans to drive them is an old dream of science-fiction writers. Such technological solutions first appeared many years ago. In 1950-s cruise control systems that control the speed automatically were developed. Currently engineers aims to make completely self-driving cars that can turn, change lines, park, stop and pick up speed as well as drive around the barriers by themselves.
“The first area to which self-driving systems will be applied is commercial carrier – cargo, public and other types of transport that follow scheduled route or used into limited areas like airports and industrial bases. It is hard to predict when these cars will become widespread. However Nissan, Tesla and Mercedes have already announced that they will develop completely self-driving cars in 2018-2025. There are also Russian projects on different readiness levels but currently thay progress less than their European and American colleagues,” commented on Sergey Koliubin.
Modern cars include a wide range of drivers’ assistants such as global positioning system (GPS) navigators, cruise controls, anti-lock braking systems (ABS), and rear parking and many other systems. Besides, more and more automobile manufacturers plan to develop autopilot systems. According to the expert, it shows that the market is ready for producing new technologies.
What are the benefits of self-driving cars? They will make people forget about sitting in traffic jams and a necessity of being attentive while driving. Furthermore as the author of the article supposes, they will regulate traffic flows. “A robot never sleeps, falls sick, never eats while driving or drives being drunk. So one can assume that thanks to autopilots the number of car crashes will be reduced.”
Smart transport systems reduce the amount of personal transport because one smart car can be used by several people – while some of them work at office others may drive. Robotic drivers will also receive the information about traffic jams, road works, car crashes and other problems that clutter traffic. However to make it real all vehicles have to be connected with each other through a unified software. For now such system for communication hasn’t been developed yet.
Speaking of disadvantages of these technologies, even a small mistake leads to series aftereffects. In February 2016 in California a self-driving car made by Google rammed into a bus. Fortunately, nobody was harmed. This accident makes us think much of how to develop a perfect infrastructure before to implement modern solutions. Thus it is important to build high-grade roads, road markings, and traffic lights as well as put traffic signs everywhere they are required, because cars will find their way taking into account all of these information.
The one more problem of these systems is that unstable weather conditions slow the system down. For example, Google tested its’ car on a specially prepared area and when the weather was fair. Nobody tested how quickly the car responded.
The implementation of robots makes us think about moral aspects. Who will be responsible if an autopilot kills a human – engineer, coder, or head of repair team didn’t mention a road hole? How to investigate that? There is no answer. Nobody also knows how to provide cyber attacks and protect these cars from hackers. The crucial point is robot’s value system. How it has to behave when faces the dilemma. If to remember a plot of “I, Robot” – the story starts with an accident when a robot saved from a car crash the policeman instead of a little girl because it was easier for it to save him. The policeman was saved but felt remorse.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology also paid attention to this ethical issue. Their article was devoted to public opinion on safety of driveless cars. They asked respondents: “Suppose a driverless car must either hit a pedestrian or swerve in such a way that it crashes and harms its passengers. What should it be instructed to do?” According to the results, people think that it would be correct if car kills a driver instead of dozen pedestrians. However nobody wants to have a car, which behaves that way. It means that people aim to develop cars that care about both drivers and pedestrians.
Before to adjust to this novelty society has to answer several questions. Is it difficult for people to entrust their lives to a car? How to save privacy when one knows that all his or her car routes are controlled by a supercomputer? How to choose an institution, which will be in charge of development of a unified software? Meanwhile these questions remain unanswered.
Read the review article of Sergey Koliubin on the official website of Control Engineering.
