Reading 11: Self-driving Cars

Each time we get on the road, we put ourselves in danger. Driving in rush hour, you are trusting hundreds of other drivers, impatient after a long day and just wanting to get home, to pilot their 3,000 pound missiles safely and responsibly. One mistake can threaten not only them, but everyone around them. This concern, safety, is one of the primary factors driving the self-driving car movement. People are unpredictable and, in the smartphone age, easily distracted. These characteristics are hardly ideal when your momentary distraction can endanger many other people. But, if cars could operate independently, this fear would go away. They would have programmed behavior and, if they are regulated properly, be aware of the behavior of all other cars around them.

In addition to the safety motivation, there is one other primary drivers for self-driving cars: time-efficiency. Imagine a world with 100% self-driving cars. Each of these cars is aware of all the cars around it, their speeds, and their future behaviors. Stop-lights and stop-signs would disappear. Cars could self-adjust speeds going through intersections so that they avoid all other cars going in all directions through the intersection. Traffic would become a thing of the past. With no distracted drivers causing accidents, all cars on the road could travel at very high speeds with minimal, although safe, amounts of space between them. How much time do you spend driving / stuck in traffic each year? With self-driving cars, all of this time is freed up to accomplish other things. You could essentially sleep through your early morning commute and just arrive at work.

I strongly believe in the utilitarian approach to programming these life-or-death scenarios into the cars driving logic. It is always the case that saving more lives is better. When an accident happens, it should be the company that developed the driving logic's fault. Presumably, with better sensing ability, the situation could have been avoided.

Self-driving cars, and automation in general, pose a large risk to our social and economic structure. Truck driving is the most popular profession in upwards of 20 states. A large number of these drivers are uneducated, and do not have many other skills to fall back on. But, if we implement self-driving cars, suddenly these tens of thousands of low-skill workers are out of the job. As a society, we need to anticipate the rise of automation and prepare for it. As we increase automation, we need to provide free training to these affected groups to give them other skills that will be beneficial for society in the future. But, it is a given that not all these people will be able to find jobs. As we slowly automate out these low-skill jobs, I think the viability of a universal living income increases. Our industries will benefit so much from not needing to employ these workers and our economy, as a result, will thrive. We can't leave these workers behind, though. With the money we gain as a country, providing a living wage would be possible. I think the government has a hand in regulating these cars. That is just because I think it would be the easiest for the government to be the one to standardize the driving logical guidelines for these cars. The most efficient system would be one in which all self-driving cars are aware of all other cars on the road, and can predict their behavior. This can only happen through standardization at the level of government regulation.

I am a hard-core utilitarian. I would definitely buy a self-driving car, even with logic that may kill me, in certain situations. (Hopefully we have better safety equipment by the time these cars hit the road)