The issue of fully autonomous cars, how they will work and how they will be regulated is still a hot topic in the automotive industry. The vast majority of the automotive realm considers this is the next logical step in the evolution of the branch they are working in, but it seems like Level 5 autonomous cars might just be a fantasy after all. At least that’s according to BMW’s Ian Robertson who spoke about the issue at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Summit in the UK.
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The biggest issue will come when reaching the highly-sought after Level 5 autonomy. This means the driver won’t have to do anything leaving everything to the car. In this scenario, the car’s safety systems could ultimately have to decided in life and death situations and that’s just something that’s not only hard to do but also hard to regulate. Ian Robertson expressed these concerns BMW has, according to Autocar.
“Imagine a scenario where the car has to decide between hitting one person or the other — to choose whether to cause this death or that death,” Ian Robertson said. “What’s it going to do? Access the diary of one and ascertain they are terminally ill and so should be hit? I don’t think that situation will ever be allowed.” And that’s certainly a valid point. Furthermore, real-life experiments done by BMW which is currently testing autonomous cars, show that engineers have to manually step in about three times a day to avoid a dangerous situation.
“If we are working towards a ‘brain off’ scenario, where perhaps we expect travelers to even sit in the back of the car and relax, then that clearly isn’t possible today, despite what some might tell you. I believe that in the long term, the regulators will step in and set boundaries about how far we can go. It might be to allow it only on motorways, as they are the most controlled environments. Or perhaps they’d essentially ‘rope off’ parts of cities to allow autonomous cars into controlled areas, where the consequences for pedestrians are controlled,” he added and that’s certainly an interesting scenario but he also pointed out that he doesn’t see a future where BMW will be making cars without a steering wheel.
And autonomous systems can be hacked.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/a-225-gps-spoofer-can-send-autonomous-vehicles-into-oncoming-traffic/
Finally someone told about that!!
A BMW has always been the Art of Driving, and shall remain that way.
Or ethical questions. What if one can buy (or pay extra for) a car that always decides in favor of the occupant. No matter what the outcome is. Extreme example: Driving of a cliff or crashing into a group of children.
Frankly, I fail to see an issue here. First, I can imagine that human drivers also make such choices – some of them would drive off a cliff, others would hit some kids. Such things happen now and they may happen (although less frequently with autonomous driving).
On the other hand more than a million persons die of car accidents globally and another 50 million is injured annually.
So, frankly, I could not care less, whether the car would hit a pregnant woman to save a terminally ill old person 10 times a year globally as long as it saves 90% of those 1 million deaths per year.
The truth is human drivers on average will be mush worse than autonomous cars. I stead of delaying their deployment due to false ethical considerations we should deploy them as fast as technology allows to literally save lives.
The real question is why anyone would pay for a car that is programmed to sacrifice the driver. I never would. Many people might virtue signal that they would, but really would not. Fully autonomous cars will never become commonplace if this is the scenario.
This isn’t as complicated an ethical question as people make it out to be. The car one buys should always do the utmost to protect the lives of the people inside it, period. If it can do so and also save people outside the car too, great, but the primary responsibility is to the owner and their passengers.
What NOT a suprise
I too feel the same. Phones are one of the human inventions that have evolved the most in the last couple of decades and it will continue to evolve further. But, however simplified the usage and functionality have become and how many more versatility in terms of operations and features it has picked, it still needs an engagement with human to function flawlessly.
That final level of human supervision is something that may never go away.
Personally, I would prefer to use a highly sophisticated and closely connected public transport than use a car that drives by itself in the future.
We will need 5G first of all as 3 and 4G have some lag time. One milllion people are KILLED world wide/year in vehicles, so even a 50% reduction is worth it. Smoking, eating, phone, internet, cup holders, all lead to distractions in car with drivers responding slower to dangers. That is why so many safety assists have been added like stability control which makes bad drivers somewhat better. When you see someone getting into their car from a handicapped space with reflexes as slow as molasses you can see the problems. There will always be dangers with speed but 40,000 people dying/year in the US not including
Debilitating injuries something must be done
Airplanes can be hacked, just like cars. Improvements are being made every year, especially the ability to hack a planes flight controls. So if we have the tech to hack a hacker trying to take control of a plane, I think we can control a car on the ground.
Don’t know where the author of this car has been over the past year, but Waymo already drives autonomously in certain cities.
As already pointed out in some comments, the potential lifes saved each year far out ways any ethical concerns.
Don’t we buy cars also for the shares pleasure and experience of driving them anymore?
Do you think people who use public transportation use it because they get a thrill out of buses and trains?
They use it because it is cheaper.
I do not expect that most people will buy autonomous cars – most will rent them, which will be much cheaper than owning one (at least in cities and urban areas).
They will be more expensive than trams or buses but much more convenient too.