Self-Driving Cars are so Lit
27 Mar 2016If you haven’t been following the news on self-driving cars lately, let me encourage you to do so. Why? Because self-driving cars are lit.
Self-driving cars are a technology that will literally change the face of modern transportation. The transition from cars driven by humans to cars driven by themselves is a change as earth-shaking as the impetus of the Internet.
95% of Americans own a car, but this number is decreasing due to services like Uber becoming more common in places with shoddy public transport. The companies that are creating self driving cars realized need to spice up the game quick to stay relevant. The regular contenders (Mercedes, Volvo, Nissan) are up against Tesla, Google and Apple to control market share and be the face of a generation-describing innovation.
What is a Self-Driving Car and why should you want one?
Safety
Remember turning 16? To get a permit, to be able to get behind the wheel for the first time, to take control. For me, getting my permit was the first notable transition into responsibility & adulthood. Teenage driving(?) comes with a price, however. The CDC posits that teens in the 16-19 age range are 3 times more likely to get into a fatal crash than any other age group. In addition, teens drivers in the U.S. count for 30% and 28% of all costs for motor accidents, males and females respectively. Freedom and responsibility are important for growth, but the statistical significance of how terrible teen drivers are cannot be understated. Inexperience, distractions from all of the stuff we have today, and a two ton metal death machine, can’t lead to good results for any involved. So maybe it’s time to redefine freedom behind the wheel, especially for new drivers. Do teenage drivers deserve the same amount of responsibility as adult drivers?
Another safety issue is control, or lack thereof. Control is a deep need. What this means is that we are biologically wired to fear situations we are not in direct control of, or at least, have a sense of control. From this assumption, we can examine the sense of control we get when behind the wheel of a car. Drivers are confident that they are in complete control of their surroundings. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who thinks that they are a bad driver. In fact, there have been multiple studies proving that most drivers succumb to the illusion that they are superior drivers. In one study, over 90% of drivers saw themselves in the top 50% of drivers. This mentality is dangerous! By assuming total internal control of any situation (this is referred to as an inner locus of control), drivers become more reckless. Texting and driving cause 1 in 4 accidents and causes 11 teens to die everyday. Sobering stuff.
When we are in a plane, we are comfortable. This is because the locus of control is completely external. I know I sure as hell don’t know how to fly a plane, I just assume that the pilot does. But yet, I have a sense that someone is in control, and I feel safe. Many have made analogies between autopilot and autonomous vehicles. I don’t believe there is an exact comparison, but I do believe that there are similarities. Autopilot is a quite a large step below the total control self-driving cars of the future have. Autopilot isn’t in charge, and serves more as a directional assistant than an actual pilot. Despite the difference in scope, the end result is the same. Autopilot drastically increased the safety of commercial flights for passengers. Self-driving cars will drastically increase the safety of daily driving. The locus of control moves outward, as it did with the pilots (again, not to the same extent), lives are literally saved.
The numbers vary, but self-driving cars are estimated to save on the order of 16,000 to 31,000 lives per year. By redefining control behind the wheel, we can stop a lot of unnecessary death.
Self driving cars are a technology I’m ready to embrace, and hopefully they’ll make the roads a safer place.