Can we blindly trust in autonomous cars? The answer in short is yes, although its development is in a phase of still initial, the brands that have ventured into these waters have shown that the technology is reliable. The principle of this type of vehicle does not support appeals: if the car complies to the letter of the traffic signals and by extension, the highway code, it is unfeasible, on paper, an accident. The drivers know well that feeling of security that is perceived when driving calmly, without any hurry, keeping the safety distance, and with all senses on the road. But unfortunately, our day-to-day is not so: always in a hurry and with a high burden of stress is also fed by the endless traffic jams.
it Is estimated that 90% of collisions are caused by the human being.
In short, the emotions that in the end we betray. However, autonomous cars don’t have feelings and for this reason, do not cause accidents, but… what about the suffering? Yes, have been few, almost testimonials, those suffered up to the date and all of them with a common denominator: to have been caused by humans.
critics of this type of vehicles had their theory confirmed when it is made public first accident in California in which a self driving car was involved, but soon saw that they were wrong: in all, absolutely all accidents, the human factor had been decisive for the collision (Fortune). The published report highlights the classic incidents that ended in a collision: the autonomous vehicle was properly stopped at a traffic light and another (led by a human) you are rammed from behind, while in another case it was another driver of flesh and bone, which is crossed in a reckless manner in front of one of these vehicles that he had no time to avoid the collision.
In all of them, are reproduced two elements: the man involved breaking any of the rules of traffic, on the one hand, and on the other, although to activate properly all the safety systems, the autonomous vehicle was not able to avoid the car for obvious reasons. As things are, there is a curious paradox: one cannot avoid a certain fear of being a passenger of a car without a driver of flesh and bone, but on the other hand, it is precisely that human drivers causing the bulk of accidents do we Exaggerate? For nothing: it is estimated that 90% of collisions are caused by the human (Alert Driving).
A difficult coexistence
Google acknowledges that their test cars were “beaten up on fourteen occasions”, all of which were the fault of drivers who are distracted or driving recklessly.
Passionate, angry, excited… The human being is a cocktail of feelings that produce a potential explosive mix behind the wheel. From the classic pique with the car next to the exit to the traffic light, until a slip up attending a WhatsApp, and that’s not to mention by the lax observance of the highway code of many, that go from the turn signals or turn unexpectedly. However, the machines are accurate and they lack all of these emotions and free will which characterises the human being, and therefore, more secure.
But… are they really? “The autonomous vehicles are undoubtedly safer than those driven by humans”, he says without hesitation Chris Urmson, the head of the automotive division of Google, more or less. The manager explains in an interview (MIT Technology Review) granted it was only a few months that their test cars “were beaten up on fourteen occasions” and all of them by the fault of distracted drivers or driving in a reckless way. Urmson calls the distraction at the wheel as “an epidemic” that is leaving a trail of corpses in its wake, and which remains alien to the autonomous vehicle.
the odd Thing is that the giant of Mountain View makes no claims trivial things, but that the credited with videos recorded by the cars themselves that are recorded situations of risk that unfortunately we have become accustomed to seeing on a daily basis. what is the reaction of an autonomous vehicle in a situation of danger? Well, if we take into account that this has had to be brought about forcibly by the human being or something out of control (imagine that a tree falls on the road), the vehicle sensors will be sorted in to stop it before any incidence, but go much further.
The Google system has been designed to to immobilize the car with the “strange situations” in which there are no guarantees of security and that despite not having imminent risk of shock, this can happen. The cars are very safe, but humans, unfortunately, do not. The question will be, from this point of coexistence: as long as there are people behind the wheel, the perfect driverless cars will continue to suffer from accidents, or as explained Urmson, will receive the “impact” of vehicles driven by humans.
In motor: