The research I have conducted on driverless cars reminds me of the saying, “Some things are too good to be true.” This is because they sound revolutionary and do exist, but hidden behind all the awe they possess three gigantic questions: do they work, what about jobs, and who will the car save in a life or death decision?
Do they work?
BMW 5 Series Car
Unfortunately, current models do not work as a truly autonomous vehicle. In an article published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) review, reporter Will Knight documents how he got the opportunity to test drive the driverless BMW 5 Series car in Munich, Germany. A BMW research Engineer named Michael Aeberhard accompanied Knight to give him safety instructions on what to do if the car stopped driving autonomously. The engineer switched the vehicle to manual control when the car encountered conditions where its programming could fail and told Knight when the car would return to driverless mode. Aeberhard exposed the reporter to these conditions to show that the car was still in testing. That was three years ago, but a manual override is still essential for the safe operation of current models. This means that these cars are not completely “driverless” and still rely on humans [1]. The question is: how will operators know when they need to take control of the vehicle and handle them correctly if the purpose of autonomous vehicles is so you do not have to perform the task of driving?
A big obstacle for driverless cars is weather. Simply put, if the car sensors cannot see their surroundings well, these cars become hazards. Rain, snow, hail, fog, and frost could all affect the sensors’ abilities and create dangerous conditions for passengers, other vehicles on the road, and pedestrians.
Another obstacle is road construction and how the cars interpret that. In April 2015, Delphi needed its Engineers to take control of one of its driverless cars traveling across the United States due to unmarked lanes and construction. If a police office is directing traffic where maps indicate there is a stop light, how will the car respond [2]?
A third obstacle is non-driverless cars. Human drivers are sometimes going to do unconventional things such as do U-turns and unexpectedly change their speed. The problem is driverless cars may also interpret these events the wrong way, just as with construction.
An uncertainty with driverless cars is unauthorized access and computer viruses [3]. The driverless car relies on computers and sensors that use the Internet. This means that at any point someone could attempt to hijack the system. The system is also vulnerable to viruses and other Internet-based attacks.
A Jeep Grand Cherokee was hacked in July 2015 (for testing purposes) by two hackers, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. They hijacked the Jeep to blast cold air, put music on at a high volume, and even forced the windshield wipers to activate and spray wiper fluid [4]. The reality is that computer security threats are always evolving to outmatch security controls; hijacking the technology of driverless cars is likely to be a concern for the foreseeable future.
Who will this car save?
First scenario in Moral Machine
MIT invented a game called the Moral Machine, where in 13 scenarios have you choose between who lives and dies in a driverless car accident [5]. What this game does is study machine ethics and how machines can or should make moral decisions. I learned through doing research that driverless cars need to be able to make moral decisions if they are on public roads.
To begin, who is responsible and sued for an injury or death from a driverless car accident? The passenger or passengers who were present at the accident? The owner, who affected how the vehicle operates on a daily basis (is it taken care of properly)? The manufacturer, who built the car and have a level of responsibility to make sure it works? If an automobile company is considering manufacturing driverless cars, a risk is maybe car buyers believe it is the company’s fault if people get hurt from one of their driverless cars. Insurers need to have a clear understanding of both risk and responsibility to set rates for several types of liability that arise from the introduction of autonomous vehicles to public areas.
Second, if the company chooses passenger lives over pedestrians in the case of an accident, will they lose potential buyers because they are seen as selfish? For example, the vehicle manufacturer Mercedes-Benz has announced in 2016 that their driverless cars would choose a passenger’s life over a pedestrian’s [6]. If autonomous technology dictates not only cars, but buses, transports, planes, and other modes of transportation, these issues affect more people at broader scale and with a greater impact.
Different driverless cars
In the end, driverless cars have the potential to prevent over 90% of accidents that are due to human error, which would reduce crashes, speed up travel, and save lives. At the same time, people need to realize these wonders of the 21stcentury are still not ready for the real world. Some things are too good to be true.
References
[1] Knight, Will. “Driverless Cars Are Further Away Than You Think.” MIT Technology Review.Web. 25 January 2017. <https://www.technologyreview.com/s/520431/driverless-cars-are further-away-than-you-think/>.
[2] Greenberg, Andy. “Hackers Remotely Kill A Jeep On The Highway-With Me In It.” Wired. Web 14 February 2017. <https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/>.
[3] Solon, Olivia. “Why self-driving cars aren’t safe yet: rain, roadworks and other obstacles.” The Guardian. Web. 31 January 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/05/tesla-crash-self-driving-car-software-flaws>.
[4] Lee, Joel. “Self Driving Cars Endanger Millions of American Jobs (And That’s Okay)” MakeUseOf. Web. 31 January 2017. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/self-driving-cars-endanger-millions-american-jobs-thats-okay/>.
[5] “Moral Machine.” Moral Machine. Web. 25 January 2017. < http://moralmachine.mit.edu/>.
[6] Morris, David. “Mercedes-Benz’s Self-Driving Cars Would Choose Passenger Lives over Bystanders” Fortune. Web. 30 January 2017. <http://fortune.com/2016/10/15/mercedes-self-driving-car-ethics/>.
[7] [Driverless cars]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/152766339.jpg
