A car that drives by itself on the road might seem like a good thing, but there are some bugs that need to be worked out as this idea isn’t the best option right now.
Carl Franzen suggests that the reason there probably won’t be any self-driving cars on the road any time soon is that they don’t have the same thoughts as humans. Imagine driving along a busy highway, knowing where you want to turn, but there is a car driven by a computer that doesn’t know which way you are going. The end result wouldn’t be ideal. There is nonverbal communication among drivers when they are on the road, and this isn’t something that you can get if there isn’t a driver in another car. Road conditions are unpredictable, and there are situations where a driverless car might not know what to do when a human would be able to avoid disaster.
One of the ideas is to convert to self-driving cars at one time, but this likely wouldn’t be an option because of the price of the cars and the reliability of the vehicles in dealing with the general public.
Driver-Less Vehicles Are Not Quite Ready
In the eyes of many automotive experts, autonomous cars are the wave of the future. Not only can self-driving vehicles reduce the number of crashes, but they may also curb the amount of drunk drivers on the road. Unfortunately, self-driving cars will not hit dealerships anytime soon. Here are the reasons.
Inability to read hand gestures
Often times, many people use hand gestures to communicate with other drivers and pedestrians. For example, two cars may approach an intersection at the same time. One driver may motion for the other vehicle to go first. Self-driving vehicles have yet to accomplish this feat.
Can’t make moral decisions
Unlike a human, self-driving vehicles cannot make split-second judgment calls. Many people are frightened by the thought of allowing a computer to control their vehicle. According to Popular Mechanics author Carl Franzen, self-driving cars simply don’t think like us.
Autonomous vehicles must share the road with humans
Due to the expensive cost of a self-driving vehicle, the majority of the population will not be able to afford one. This means that human drivers will have to share the road with self-driving vehicles.
After the kinks are ironed out, autonomous vehicles could revolutionize the public roadways.