Self-driving cars are a new form of transportation that allow a highly-advanced computer system to navigate a vehicle with no human interaction. This new advancement in technology has many differing opinions on safety and reliability. The main problem with self-driving cars is the question about safety. Is there a way for people to trust a computer with their lives or even the lives of loved ones? Engineers and Scientists are still developing ways to program the cars to make the best decision when it comes to accident prevention and casualty loss. It is proven that self-driving cars are reported to have fewer accidents, and are much safer than human controlled cars, but people do not like to give up control of their life to a machine, especially if they don’t understand how it works. …show more content…
That freedom of taking an evening drive is now gone, the relaxing hum that the engine makes while driving through the country doesn’t have the same effect. All of the freedom of just being able to escape has suddenly disappeared and driving is just seen as a form of transportation even though it is so much more than that. With an autonomous vehicle, all control is given up and the machine decides how you get there and how fast you go. Now imagine that instead of just your freedom being taken away, your entire life could be taken from you. In the case of an accident a majority of people surveyed said that the vehicle should cause the fewest casualties as possibilities (“why” para. 15). That also means that crashing the car in most cases is a better option than hitting pedestrians. This is where public opinion changes though, even though people agree that the least number of casualties is the right thing to do, very few people actually want to be in the vehicle in this event (“why” para. 17). It turns out that people would feel safer with autonomous vehicles, as long as they are not the ones behind the