By Jaimin Patel The possibilities of cars have been in our imaginations ever since their creation itself: flying cars, hydrogen powered cars, and even self-driving cars. Today, self driving cars are a reality. However, many concerns arise as the concept of self driving cars progresses to potentially become an everyday aspect of transportation. Are these cars truly safe? How effective are they? How expensive? While these reactions are completely expected and rational, such questions arise with any type of fascinating new innovation; before it is accepted, it must be questioned. As we see our society rapidly progressing day by day, self driving cars will ultimately prove to be beneficial. Think about all the deaths and accidents that tear apart families and take lives due to a driving mistake. As humans, we are bound to get distracted, feel fatigued, or feel road rage; human error is almost unavoidable in a driving setting. Now think about all the lives that could be saved if human error was eliminated from the equation. Self-driving cars have been programmed to detect, expect, and react to everything that we should while on the road, the only difference being that on occasions, we fail. Google’s self driving cars are bringing us one step closer to that idealistic driving scenario. In fact, Google’s self driving cars have sensors that can detect object and people up to two football fields away. These cars are able to detect their location, understand the objects around them based on shape and size, predict what other “drivers” will do next, and finally make a decision about it should to in the situation. These cars are equipped with back up systems to ensure effective steering, breaking, and computing as well. Just as anything news bound to result in questionability due to the element of awe, as a society, we will eventually get used to such a fascinating innovation that we had only dreamed of. Even when the car was first invented, many may have been skeptical and still preferred horse-carriage, but look at us now. Also, there is plenty of time for the minor kinks to be resolved; this innovation is still a work in progress so as a society, we have time to get used to such a new concept. In fact, according to a recent article published in The Verge by Chris Ziegler and Dieter Bohn, fully legalizing this vehicle is going to “likely take years, even in the most optimistic scenario.” So yes, it may be hard to trust a ‘robot’ to do our driving, and self driving cars may take away an exciting part of growing up, but in the long run, self driving cars may just be one of the best and safest ideas yet.
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Elena Caputo
Hi! My name is Elena, and I'm a senior at Wilson and one of the Editors of the Editorial section. If you have any questions or ideas or if you want to write, email me at [email protected]! Olivia MonosHello! My name is Olivia and I'm a junior this year, and one of the editors of the Editorial section! I'm really excited to write for the Paw Print again this year!
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