[debate]#4/ Driverless cars: boon or bane?

[MnM]

Driver-less cars: Boon or bane
Refer to the rules from Main thread

Almost all of you might be aware of the fact that google is developing a driver-less/self-driving/autonomous car. This is pure artificial intelligence and from the name of it it's obvious that there is no need for a person to manually drive the car.

There can be different opinions from different people. But it is important to know that once an AI code with an ability to think like human is embedded into a chip it almost becomes super intelligent.

Also there are lots of opposition to this from taxi drivers. Once this project gets successful and can be mass-produced, there can be severe job insecurity. So what's your take on this new technology?

Note: I have modified the rules in my main debate thread. You need not submit your debate topics. You can do it yourself. I'll try my best to compile it in my thread

[Azriel]

I say: Boon

- People don't have to be alert all the time, so there's less chances of accidents due to loss of focus
- Less traffic as people don't need personal cars - you use a car to travel, but most of the time it stays parked (it costs space). There's existing research [citation needed] that shows most traffic are just people looking for spaces to park.
Driverless cars mean they can just drop you off, and drive to pick someone else.
- Less traffic = less time wasted travelling
- also, no road rage

[A-Man]

Why merge everything into one thread later? We had BP start a whole sub forum for these kind of discussions.

Also there are lots of opposition to this from taxi drivers. Once this project gets successful and can be mass-produced, there can be severe job insecurity. So what's your take on this new technology?

It's healthier if you see it form another perspective. Artificial intelligence replaces taxi drivers, but people can then work on non-labor intensive stuff machines aren't very good at. Also, as a result, producing basic products and services become easier and cheaper, so one can expect prices to go down too. I think.

STM1993 edited this post 12-22-2015 12:13 PM because:

Regarding the merging, MnM told me its best to not merge anymore. So for this topic onwards, I'll be leaving them as they are - as separate threads.

[empirefantasy]

boon I think. if it will go to became a very good driver why not. hopefully it will not break the rules of will do sh**** driving in roads causing accidents of annoying on other. and save cars from missuse.
what a coincidence. today I had so much traffic while driving duh ((

[Rhino.Freak]

Bane. Bugs, errors and so isn't hard to find in any software these days. 1 little mistake can prove lethal to huge numbers.

[Bamboori]

definitely boon. see azriels post for reasons
also @Azriel you should fix your sig

the problem i see is with integrating the driverless cars into traffic.
the easiest thing for the AI would be to only have driverless cars in traffic, or at least have all cars equipped with some sensors.
its not possible though to just replace every single car at once, so the AI has to be tweaked to work with human drivers (which are more prone to street rule violations for example).

personally im not even planning to get a drivers license. i know, it will be long before we actually have driverless cars in germany, but in my city i can reach everything by bike and my college grants me a free pass for public traffic as long as im studying. the only times i would need a car would be long journeys (with destinations that cannot be reached by bus or train) and moving out (which i currently am, haha). but even if i need to rent a car (and possibly driver if none of my friends has time) for those events, the cost is still way less that maintaining a car all year round. not to mention a drivers license isnt free either.

[STM1993]

Boon. Its essentially taking the train but with significantly greater convenience comparable to a taxi minus the waiting time. Short distance - take the driverless car. Long distance - take the train. Even longer distance - air travel. Other forms of driving would be restricted to maybe law enforcement, construction work and racing in specified locations.

As always the problem is the slow, painful process of implementing this entirely new system, but I do believe that it is well worth the pain.

[MnM]

@Azriel : Nice thought with the patrolling cars but how can you be sure people don't require personal cars? Everyone would like to buy one cool driver less cars..

@Bamboori : Well, there is this thing. All cars need not be converted into driver less. Recently based upon the test runs, the driver less cars almost can move seamlessly in traffic with humans. Accidents might happen due to manual drivers.Google is however planning to completely remove the cruise control on the cars!(cruise control allows a person to take charge of the driving at emergency situation). But this leaves us with another problem as @Rhino.Freak mentioned. Almost all software have some chance of failure. Bugs can however be rectified but there still is some insecurity. Emergency situation is still possible since all the cars cannot be driver less. Seems very less practical from my point of view same like @STM1993 mentioned but is it possible at all!?

Most of the points made here are pointing towards individual advantage. But do you think there needs to be some ethics in development? @A-Man : Even though you might sound driving is a low-skilled job. There is growing unemployment all over the world. This might totally affect the economy and standard of living. Uber is planning to replace all its cars autonomous.

The way I see driver less cars is a model of car and nothing more than that. Getting clearance from each country/state is another major problem.

I might seem to take a bane side owing to the fact only one person said it is a bane. I hope you guys don't take the word bane literally and think in terms of viable or not viable.