Reflection on Autonomous Vehicles
This unit has been a wild one to say the least. The conversation on autonomous vehicles has many different angles, numerous elements, and is a bit controversial. One of the biggest debates is on safety. Not only the safety of the passengers in the autonomous vehicle, but the safety of other drivers, passengers in different autonomous vehicles, and pedestrians. Though autonomous vehicle manufacturers have done years of testing and improvements, I am still not convinced that we are at a point to allow self-driving cars on highways without a human in the drivers seat. To me, this isn’t about aversion to change or progression, but just serious concern about safety. I feel that big manufacturers are rushing this process. They are making promises they don’t know they can keep. Computer science is known for how quickly new developments come and how fast it changes. This, for some reason, puts pressure on new technology to be released as fast as the technology developed. The need for applause and gratification in today’s society seems to trump priority for safety and wellbeing of their clients and/or passengers. I think this is what surprises me the most. Everything comes with a label. Being first to release or first to develop are big companies excuse and accomplishment. By that I mean that their company is forever labeled as the “first” to do something, giving them public gratification and an automatic advantage over competing companies. On the flip side, if something were to go wrong with their product, they are free to use the excuse that “it was the first of its kind, of course it will need improvements” even though they probably shouldn’t have released the product in the first place. As long as it ticks most of the boxes and looks good as a headline, it’s ready for the public.
Computers are truly an extremely powerful tool. Possibly too powerful for even computer scientists to fully grasp. This technology is groundbreaking and it is definitely a lot to take in at once. It seems that the time it takes to process and understand a bit of new technology, as soon as we try to move on there is only 10 times more information to figure out. Everyday people are of course hesitant to accept things like self-driving cars. There is not enough transparency from manufacturers to common people. The pros and cons need to be communicated, all potential flaws said out front. Not only do these things need to be communicated, but they need to be translated into common language so there is nothing left open to interpretation. Advertising needs to be less about making money and more about being honest. Honesty and transparency is more appreciated by general public than most people think. This class is about ethics. Couldn’t misleading the general public into pouring money into a product that may not be as reliable as advertised be considered unethical?
