The road to self-driving cars

The future never looks exactly as we imagine it. The visions of the 21st century that were conceived in the 20th tend to get some things right and others very wrong. (See the pop futurists’ ironic rallying cry: “Where’s my jetpack?”)

We may not live in the world of “The Jetsons,” but one technology that would fit there is well on its way to consumers in ours: the self-driving car.

The New York Times reports that the Department of Transportation has made its first formal policy statement on autonomous vehicles. Such cars are still in prototype stages, but the government is trying to keep pace with the rapid advances in this area. Richard Wallace, director of transportation systems analysis at the Center for Automotive Research, told The Times: “It’s not that [the Transportation Department is] trying to stop it. They’re trying to get by.” (1)

So far, Google has gone the furthest with driverless vehicles, but General Motors is also developing the technology. Other companies are likely to follow, given the variety of automated technologies already present in current models, features we no longer find remarkable, such as lane departure and blind spot warnings, automatic parking, self-adjusting cruise controls and stability systems. vehicle. .

The concept of a computer-driven car makes some people nervous because of its novelty. But technology is a continuum, not a binary choice between control by a human driver or by a machine.

We can look up for analogous situations. We still don’t have pilotless planes. Even the drones have human pilots; they are simply on the ground, rather than in the plane. But modern planes are highly automated and, as a result, safer than ever.

Mid-air collisions involving commercial airliners are almost unheard of now that automated systems alert pilots that they are on intercept routes. GPS and advanced mapping have made “controlled flight into terrain,” which is another name for flying into a mountain or other obstacle, extremely rare. Advances in instrument landing systems make it possible to take off and land in weather that not long ago would have made it impossible to fly. Without completely eliminating the human element, technological advances have mitigated many of the risks of flying.

The same goes for road trips. Have you ever tried to look for a small street sign on a dark road late at night? Or navigate through an area unknown to you without a passenger to read a map? It’s so much easier and safer when your car’s navigation system tells you exactly where to turn. Adaptive cruise control keeps me at a safe following distance, slowing down when I get too close to the car in front of me. Lane departure warning systems can tell a driver when they are drifting, although in my experience, there are still plenty of false alarms. That’s not to mention the built-in computers that diagnose engine problems and call for assistance in the event of an accident, or the (still not quite) standard of including a backup camera in new vehicles.

As with pilots, human drivers are always at risk of error, and computers are always at risk of failure. But as freeways speed up in some parts of the country and summer ushers in a season for family road trips, technology is helping human drivers navigate their routes as safely as possible.

Do completely driverless cars seem far-fetched? Maybe. But if I’m flying into the sprawling Orlando airport, a driverless train will take me from the gate to the main terminal building. Nobody seems to see anything strange about it. We all take cruise control for granted these days; semi-autonomous cars are a further step down the existing path. Fully autonomous cars are a few steps further. Like any new technology, it will take some getting used to.

Technology is making driving safer in all kinds of ways. From seat belts to air bags to computerized anti-skid systems, we have fewer accidents than when I was a kid and come out unscathed in far more than happen. Death mileage statistics tell the story: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows a marked drop in death rates over the past 20 years, from 1.73 deaths per 100 million miles traveled in 1994 to 1.10 deaths per 100 million VMT in 2011 (2)

Go full speed ahead with the latest technologies. They will take us where we want to go more reliably and safely than ever before.

Sources:

1) The New York Times, “Autonomous Test Vehicles Have US Support”

2) NHTSA, “Deaths and Mortality Rates, 1994 – 2011”