Introduction
Self-driving cars are on the rise. And, in theory, they’re supposed to be safer than those driven by humans. But while self-driving cars can accurately detect objects and obstacles on the road—and even predict what they’ll do next—they still don’t know how to behave around other human drivers, who often make bad decisions when trying to get out of their way. A recent study shows that at least some of the blame for this lies with us humans: We’re not good teachers for these robots yet. In fact, we’re teaching them all sorts of bad habits as we try to fit into our fast-moving traffic patterns—and that’s making things worse for everyone involved!
Self-driving car accidents are on the rise.
Self-driving cars are on the rise, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe. In fact, self-driving car accidents are on the rise too–and by a lot. According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 124 reported accidents involving autonomous vehicles in 2018, compared to just 24 in 2017. That’s an increase of over 100{a5ecc776959f091c949c169bc862f9277bcf9d85da7cccd96cab34960af80885} in just one year!
The increased number of accidents has been attributed to a combination of factors: some beyond the control of self-driving cars themselves; others due to human error; and still others caused by both humans and machines working together poorly at best or maliciously at worst.
Some of the blame for this is on the humans behind the wheel.
A lot of the blame for this is on the humans behind the wheel. Drivers are distracted by their phones, they’re not paying attention to the road or weather conditions, and they often don’t even notice other drivers around them–including people in their own cars. Many of these distractions make it hard for a driver to see what’s happening around them or react quickly enough if something goes wrong (like another car suddenly changing lanes).
In some cases, it can take up to three seconds from when something happens before you even realize that it happened–and by then it could be too late! A robot car would never have this problem because its sensors would always detect any changes in its environment immediately without having any chance for human error getting in between them; however, even though most cars now come equipped with automatic braking systems designed specifically for situations like these where someone runs into your lane without signaling first (which happens surprisingly often), these systems aren’t always effective due again largely due poor human behavior patterns such as texting while driving which makes us slow down our reaction time even further than normal while still trying desperately not hit anything else out there either because we’re afraid of getting into trouble ourselves
But there’s more to it than that.
But there’s more to it than that.
The problem isn’t really the robots; it’s how we teach them to drive. We need to improve our driving systems so that machines can learn who to trust and when to trust them, rather than relying on algorithms or pre-programmed personalities. In other words: How do we make sure that autonomous cars are programmed with the right values?
The problem isn’t really the robots; it’s how we teach them to drive.
The problem isn’t really the robots; it’s how we teach them to drive.
The big takeaway from all this is that, if you’re going to put a robot car on the road, don’t teach it to drive like humans do. Humans are bad drivers–we’re impulsive and emotional and easily distracted by our phones or food, so our cars should be designed accordingly. They should be able to read signs without relying on us for help; they should maintain their speed without being told by us when it’s safe or dangerous (and then change speeds accordingly); they shouldn’t crash into other cars because they were following too closely behind one another in traffic jams…
We need to improve our driving systems so that machines can learn who to trust and when to trust them.
As we move forward with this technology and begin to rely on it more and more, it’s important to recognize that there are still many kinks in the system. We need to improve our driving systems so that machines can learn who to trust and when to trust them.
We need to teach cars how not just humans but other cars will behave on the road–and then teach them how they themselves should act in those situations.
Conclusion
If we want to see self-driving cars on the road, we need to find a way to make them safer. The technology is there–it just needs some fine-tuning. But as long as humans are behind the wheel, accidents will happen. And when they do, it’s important that we know how to handle them safely so everyone involved gets home in one piece (or two).
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