Thursday, April 18, 2013

The future of the car: Clean, safe and it drives itself

source: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21576384-cars-have-already-changed-way-we-live-they-are-likely-do-so-again-clean-safe-and-it

This article from the economist discuss the future of cars. As regulations become stricter, car companies are researching and investing in cleaner technology. Furthermore, they predict that the future of driver-less comes is nearing. With the pace of advancement in technology, it will be possible to develop driver-less cars that will be able to drive safely and not pollute. This will be advantageous for the elderly and the crippled. Although initially some people may fear the new technology, more people will pick it up and soon enough, driver-less cars may become the new trend. Just like how we are moving to a cashless society, we will have to overcome technophobia.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I think it will be interesting to see how this picks up in the future. It seems to have a lot of potential, but it makes me wonder where the line is when it comes to technological developments. It reminds me of the increase in technology in the medical field. One the one hand it is extremely beneficial for obvious reasons, but it can also cause too much dependability on these advancements.

Anonymous said...

While this technology sounds really cool and could potentially be very helpful to many groups of people, I am still a little skeptical as to its safety. But, I guess that’s how some people feel about online banking and other newer methods. However, I see this as being different because while those technologies put people’s livelihood at risk, this puts people’s lives at risk. We are literally putting our lives in the hands of technology and hoping that it performs well enough to keep us safe.

Unknown said...

I think that once tested, these "future cars" may be safer than human drivers. As sensors can detect other cars and vehicles systems can coordinate with each other, they could potentially outperform human drivers. I think that they'll be tested often enough that they will be relatively safer than human drivers. It would be too idealistic to assume that there would be absolutely no accidents, but it would definitely have to be generally accident free for it to come into the market or else it won't sell. I agree with Brenda that this new technology may lead people to depend too much on it. This may harm public health if people resorted to vehicles for all distances assuming that the new technology becomes cheap enough to continually use. However, should we stop innovation because of side effects and externalities that we cannot capture?

Anonymous said...

I agree that these driver-less cars might end up being safer than the types of vehicles that are currently used. It will definitely take a while for individuals to accept this kind of technology and I do not foresee it catching on anytime soon. Eventually, I believe this kind of technology will be extremely beneficial to society. I am interested to hear more about when and how it will be introduced into the market.