Driverless cars...really?
It has been announced in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget speech that driverless cars will be tested on UK roads as early as next year.
Now don’t misunderstand the negative tone that I may appear to give, I think a future of driverless cars is going to revolutionize the motor industry and the UK will be on the same level as its American cousin, but after the accidents that happened across the pond I do sometimes wonder how safe they will be.
Due to an issue with the software, a driverless Lexus SUV crashed into a bus because its software thought that the bus would let it out. Google then said that a human can cause this accident as well – yes we can but we have the ability to look around and check all blind spots are clear before pulling off. In my opinion, a car being driven by a person would have seen the bus and would have stopped, let the bus pass and waited for an opening in the traffic to safely pull out.
With the right amount of dedicated time and research, driverless cars could and already are to some extent revolutionising roads across the UK. At Heathrow Airport, there are currently electric driverless passenger pods, and the cars that will be tested on UK roads will resemble these pods but will obviously not run on tracks.
With nearly two million miles already travelled by the pods at Heathrow Airport they have been a huge success, but in the back of my mind I am thinking about the overall safety of these cars and whether or not we can 100% trust the car.
Now don’t misunderstand the negative tone that I may appear to give, I think a future of driverless cars is going to revolutionize the motor industry and the UK will be on the same level as its American cousin, but after the accidents that happened across the pond I do sometimes wonder how safe they will be.
Due to an issue with the software, a driverless Lexus SUV crashed into a bus because its software thought that the bus would let it out. Google then said that a human can cause this accident as well – yes we can but we have the ability to look around and check all blind spots are clear before pulling off. In my opinion, a car being driven by a person would have seen the bus and would have stopped, let the bus pass and waited for an opening in the traffic to safely pull out.
With the right amount of dedicated time and research, driverless cars could and already are to some extent revolutionising roads across the UK. At Heathrow Airport, there are currently electric driverless passenger pods, and the cars that will be tested on UK roads will resemble these pods but will obviously not run on tracks.
With nearly two million miles already travelled by the pods at Heathrow Airport they have been a huge success, but in the back of my mind I am thinking about the overall safety of these cars and whether or not we can 100% trust the car.
Comments
Post a Comment