In recent years the development of autonomous vehicles has scared many people, the thought of a car that drives itself around with no human contact instils fear.
According to the government, the autonomous car industry is worth £900bn worldwide, but the legalities and issues surrounding fault are significant steps to overcome. Many car companies are tapping into this vast potential and creating autonomous vehicles, with companies like Jaguar Land Rover announcing they will be sending out autonomous cars by the end of this year.
The hope is that self-driving cars will help to lower congestion, decrease the number of accidents, and improve traffic flow as they will be able to spot risks and barriers and communicate with other vehicles. They will be able to control steering, braking and their speed, and be able to make safe decisions based on their perception of the road conditions, but are drivers confident about sharing the roads with them?
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Worrying the country
In a recent Facebook poll that PetrolPrices ran, where we asked people “Are you worried about self-driving cars being allowed on the roads?”, 70% of respondents said that they were indeed worried, with some referencing the issue around who would get prosecuted in the event of an accident. On the other hand, one person said they would not ride in one but would be happy sharing the road as the non-autonomous driver can see and note their surroundings.
A survey by WhatCar? also revealed that 45% of drivers found the thought of self-driving cars unappealing. On the other hand, a separate study by SMNT found that 49% of 17-24-year-olds would use an autonomous vehicle, with a considerable 71% saying that connected and autonomous vehicles would improve their life. These statistics show that younger drivers who have grown up with technology are more trusting of it, whereas the majority of older drivers have not grown up surrounded by smart devices.
The government is not helping with these fears as they want to allow driverless cars for consumer use on the road by 2020. However, they have said for all autonomous vehicle testing a competent driver must be present to step in if it is needed.
Artificial Intelligence
These autonomous vehicles will start to be tested on public roads after nearly three years of testing on private land as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs to be able to learn to mimic human actions as best as they can. This is called machine learning, and by recognising different triggers while driving, they can apply human-like actions to their decision-making process. The hope is that the closer to human driving the autonomous vehicles can get, the general public will feel more comfortable being on the same roads as them.
Most human drivers fear AI as they worry it will prompt more accidents than drivers cause. In fact, 34% of drivers said this would be their biggest concern with autonomous vehicles. In response to this, car manufacturers have stated that human error causes 90% of crashes, and artificial intelligence will not be distracted by a mobile phone or nod off behind the wheel.
The current situation
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi have a project called HumanDrive, which uses machine learning to help create a safe autonomous vehicle, have said they will release a vehicle for testing late next year. On its drive across the UK, HumanDrive will take control of the steering, braking, speed, road position and decision-making, as well as the perception of conditions and features required to pilot the car fully. Before this, the car will have been intensely tested on private roads and tracks in a variety of conditions to promote complete safety.
Most traditional car retailers are facing competition from companies like Tesla and Google, who are pioneering the way forward and changing the perception of what autonomous vehicles can do over in America.
What’s next?
In the future of AI, machine learning and autonomy, no one can predict what will happen next. All we can do at the moment is wait and arm ourselves with the knowledge to be able to adapt to the rise of autonomous vehicles.
What do you think about self-driving vehicles? Are you excited to see them on public roads? Let us know in the comments below
Fear of automation is irrational. Most lifts are fully automatic. Aeroplanes are on autopilot from lift-off to touchdown, and there was not a single fatality in 2017. Driverless trains are safer. And driverless cars are likely to be at least ten times less accident prone without human error, and probably a lot more.
Think of the lives saved and the insurance premium slashed.
Trains run on rails plains in the air NOT where people should be and they have human controllers in place.
Autonomous would need to be removed from the human environment to be totally safe
If to help with mobility reasons then a good idea however to make people more lazy and the loss of driving skill then bad. Watch the film “Demolition Man” and look at the back ground story not yhe violence part but the eutophian wish, no thanks.
Think of all the things an autonomous car CANNOT do:
1) Avoid hitting an animal (cat, dog, fox, pheasant) or low flying bird.
2) Detect the start of a fault (soft tyre, low fuel, engine/transmission noise) and make a balanced decision to stop now or carry on a short way to a layby, fuel station, turn-off.
3) Steer around a branch, protuding verge, oncoming vehicle slightly over the line, when to overtake a bicycle (or horse) and by how much.
4) Respond to someone signalling a warning, command or request for help.
5) Avoid a pothole (or decide it is too dangerous to do so) or slow right down.
6) Use indicators to signal intentions/warn/thank other drivers.
7) Decide when to pull out of a junction, roundabout or at what point to merge. Courtesy.
8) Drive around looking for a parking space.
9) See a flashing blue light/siren in the distance and prepare to pull over.
10) Allow a pedestriation (central reservation or not) to cross the road when the traffic is slow.
11) See a potential problem in the distance (maybe a mile ahead) and plan avoiding action.
12) And I haven’t even started. Never will I co-operate with such on our roads. Nor make optional the most rewarding, responsible, empowering of things – learning to drive, perfecting smooth complex manoeuvres, controlling a powerful flexible machine… and such freedom!
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 they can do, nos 4 & 11. they don’t need to do as they will react when they come across the hazard or if it’s someone requesting help then tough, I wouldn’t stop for fear of being car jacked.
In reality self driving cars can only avoid incidents that they have been taught to avoid and nee to have a ‘map showing all details of an area in which they drive. Whilst they can obey set rules and traffic laws the are totally incapable of deciding to take action to injure a small group of people, the driver or a large group of people in an accident situation. This is known as the trolley test and only creatures capable of some form of self determination are capable of. Also machines are only as good as the informant they have been programmed with. Finally a self driving car will fail to pass a horse, bike or pedestrian if the road is not sufficiently wide to allow the set clearance to pass. They will be electrically powered as there will be no way of using any other fuel.
There is no reason that they couldn’t do this (well, possibly not performing the unsafe overtakes, that would probably be prohibited by regulations).
They would actually be much better with the trolley dilemma than a human. An AI would evaluate the situation and immediately apply a rule-based decision, while – most- humans would hesitate tying to weigh morals.
There is no ‘right’ answer to the trolley dilemma anyway; its an artificial construct. You might say its better to run over one person than two. But if the two people walked into your path and the one was an innocent bystander, is that still true? If its one child and two OAPs, is your judgment still the same? What if it is 2 criminals vs a saint? (I’m getting a bit hypothetical now, unless they conveniently wear shirts with arrows on them, you probably wouldn’t have this information).
Think of what some of the human CAN do: 1) Not slow down when traffic in front is building up. 2) Cut in front of you at the last possible moment when lane closes. 3) on mobil phone and oblivious what’s happening around him/her. 4) USE both hands to apply make up. 5) change lane without looking and indicating. 5) DRINK driving. 6) deliberately running a car knowing it’s defective i. e. bald tyre, defective lights, overload car with goods/passengers. The list goes on……
Well said, Jean!
Bring ’em on, less stress, less congestion,
.and just as little brain power required!
What makes brain power so great Martin? Humans have incredible capacity (even the stupid ones) and are given the power to wield a deadly tonne of metal, and they abuse it and people die. At least machines will be consistent, and their learning will be for the betterment of their performance.
Fair point, Alasdair! It’s true that a considerable number of motorists are stupid and in charge, but not always control of a car, but for all our faults which define us as a species, we still share so much, whereas we share nothing with machines but we are encouraging them to replace us in so many areas of everyday life without thinking of the impact on ourselves. “Pop will eat itself” now becomes “The human race will replace itself and live in a sterile, boring and soulless world” I don’t expect you to agree with these sentiments, but that’s what I see and think
Okay, I understand that, but is a fear of being replaced a reason not to improve road safety?
On another note, something I thought of since my original response – nobody sits on a commuter train thinking “I wish I was in charge of this train, able to control it myself” instead of using that time every day to do something else. It’ll surely be the same when cars can drive themselves – they’ll be tools we don’t need to operate, with the benefit of being safer as a result.
On a more humerus note, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars to see why machines will be better than us. ♂️
Another really stupid idea, driverless cars, based on “we can do it” without any regard for the consequences, the same mentality as Amazon considering using drones to deliver packages onto customers’ gardens where they can get rained on, if they’re not already damaged by the drop. Sometimes it’s not a good idea to do something just because we have the technology. What about commonsense? That’s something we all have but don’t always use ……
Another really awesome idea, driverless cars, based on “we can do it better” with obvious commercial and legal regard for the consequences, the same mentality as Amazon considering using drones to deliver packages onto customers’ gardens where they can get rained on and will obviously be waterproof, because they’re not already damaged by the gentle landing, release and take-off. Sometimes it’s a great idea to do something just because we have the technology. What about common sense? That’s something we all have but don’t always use …… when we comment on this blog. Or drive a car.
As for the rest of the points above – obviously companies will want to create services that are a success and will consider things like a bit of rain, or how to land a package, or how to drive with less distraction than a human on their phone/smoking/adjusting the radio/looking in only one direction at-a-time.
Humans could drive better and they don’t. Machines could drive better and they will continue to do so. Makes sense to me.
Alasdair, I respect your views and your skill in argument, you have refuted my arguments very convincingly, but deep down I deplore this capitulation to the use of machines replacing human beings just because we have the technology. I think the worst example is the increasingly ubiquitous self-service checkout, where a machine barks orders at you and then detects an unidentified object in the bagging area, which then entails a human being entering an override code. If this is the future, I’m glad I am already in my 60s! I am not a technophobe, quite the opposite, but I think we need to always consider the baby as well as the bathwater! I love Kindle, MP3 downloads, satnav and Hive, because I find them useful and fit for purpose……
To take this from the other angle, would you rather the cars around you be driven by machines with 100% alertness, 360-degree vision, impeccable & dispassionate judgement and cat-like reactions?
Or humans that may be tired, distracted, ill, drunk, drugged, playing with their phone, thinking about work, unskilled (at driving), in a hurry or emotional? Or even, driving as well as a human can, but unfortunately just not looking in exactly the right direction at exactly the right time?
Human driver every time. All that sounds good, but Technology is not always 100%. Why not add more autonomous features to cars rather then completely self driving. Because of jobs and peoples livelihoods. 1st taxi drivers then lorry drivers then vans, to many jobs that can’t all be replaced with alternative work. Lots of people doing these jobs actually really enjoy them (I love driving) and wouldn’t want to do anything else. Some people couldn’t do anything else. What should happen is harder and better driving test better road infrastructure, more policing of bad driving, and increasing safety features on vehicles.
Nothing in the computer world is idiot or worse still Hack proof Could you imagine the chaos if a person or terrorist capable of hacking US Government sites started fiddling with auto-vehicle programming on our crowded streets.
Big money ignores these obvious flaws to the detriment of working folk.
I find it difficult to understand those that fear this development, do they not realize that aircraft have been using this technology for years!