Husary 1

Bella Husary

Ms. Gardner

Honors English/ Period 5

13 November 2017

It is important that society is fully informed on the potential dangers and benefits that come with

autonomous vehicles before we continue to fund such a futuristic idea. ​When people think of

computer-driven cars, they either picture cold Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the benign Kit from

Knight Rider , but neither extreme match the reality of self driving cars.​ We Americans are prone to

dislike change, whether horseless carriages in the early 1900’s or driverless cars, in the 21st century. We

feel a loss of control, an excess of uncertainty, a concern for suitability. The thought of not driving

ourselves scares us. According to Lane Filler, a researcher on the future of cars, 3 out of 4 of us aren’t

ready to ride a driverless car because we aren't fully aware of the risks and benefits involved. Most people

are not ready to take the leap because they believe that a human could operate a car better than any

machine.

One reason that autonomous cars are safer than cars operated by humans is human reaction time. The

average human being takes 1.5 seconds to react to stimuli such as being cut off on the freeway. ​When you

are driving at 60 or 70 mph, how would you expect to be able to hit the brakes faster than a computer,

which takes about 0.17 of a second? Or, do you really feel that you are giving the road your full attention

when you are taking that hands free call? Or when you are late to your 1 o'clock, so you just indulge in

your messy burger on the freeway? ​Another example of how self-driving vehicles are safer than human

driven ones brings me to self-driving trucks and semis. Long time truck driver ​Roman Mugriyev shared

his story: he was towing his 18 wheeler down the highway when a couple hundred feet ahead, a woman’s

car has spun out into his lane. Now for a full truck of that size going 65 mph, it takes over the length of 2
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football fields for the truck to come to a complete stop. The presence of cars in the l left lane beside him

and a ditch to the right of him didn’t make matters any better because he couldn’t change lanes to avoid

the spun car. Muhriyev plowed into her and was informed on the scene that the woman was dead. Imagine

now, if his truck was one of Otto’s self driving trucks and the woman’s car was also self driving. ​Not only

would the woman’s car have had a better chance of not spinning out, but if it had, and the truck, and car

would have communicated, and the truck and the car and the surrounding traffic would have

communicated, making the situation less fatal.

Reliability is probably the second most weighted point when thinking about a driverless car. In the literal

mechanics of the car itself, it can be seen as significantly more reliable. In today’s cars, there are roughly

2000 parts that can break down at any time, which can cause harm to drivers, passengers and pedestrians;

whereas ​autonomous cars have as few as 200 parts.​ This can be viewed in two ways, one, that the car is

less likely to break down or have engine trouble, therefore less expensive trips to the mechanic;

conversely that most mechanics, and gas stations, and oil and smog businesses will see a steady decline in

business in the next decade, making their income very unreliable.​ ​We are betting on the horse of today’s

engineering over the nag of service personal.​ Another great perk of self-driving cars is that it securely

transports drivers who are too old to be driving, too young or not safe drivers, which will decrease

mortality rates exponentially. Unfortunately, there is one reliability issue that seems to be the main reason

for most Americans not wanting to make the leap from manually driven cars to self-driving cars: hacking.

As vehicles start to become more and more computer based, there is a much greater chance of a hacker

getting into your car's system and controlling it from an outside source. ​Hackers get computers,

computers get hacked.​ A hacker has the potential to disable any engine or set of brakes, making a

self-driving car very dangerous and unreliable. Hacking of vehicles scares people on all levels.
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Futurists are predicting that with fewer errors, fewer accidents and fewer minds on the road, traffic levels

will decrease severely. ​Commutes and travel time will be reduced because if every car on the road is self

driving, the cars will be able to travel at much faster speeds than now, when we have to take extra caution

and drive at the speed of prevailing conditions. ​Self driving cars don’t sound so silly now, do they? ​So

what are we waiting for?​ ​Research and drive safely, everyone.

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Works Cited

Freedman, David H. "Self-Driving Trucks." Technology review, 2017, pp. 62-71, SIRS Issues

aaaaaa ​Researcher, ​https://sks.sirs.com​.

Visual Expert Human Factors: Driver Reaction Time​,

www.visualexpert.com/Resources/reactiontime.html​.

Filler, Lane. "Why are we Scared of Self-Driving Cars?" Newsday, 08 Mar, 2017, SIRS Issues

Researcher, ​https://sks.sirs.com​.

Stopping Distances – Truck Smart​, ​www.udot.utah.gov/trucksmart/motorist-home/stopping-distances/​.

II, Angel Reyes. “Self-Driving Cars To Reduce Deaths on American Roads — Dallas Auto 

Accident Attorneys Blog — September 25, 2016.” ​Dallas Auto Accident Attorneys 

Blog​, 1 Mar. 2017, 

www.reyeslaw.com/blog/2016/09/self-driving-cars-reduce-deaths-american-roads/​.  

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3080590/car-tech/by-2035-21m-self-driving-vehicles-will-

be-on-our-roads.html  

 
www.truckaccidentlaw.org/blog/4550/semi-truck-slams-into-car-killing-two-in-snoqualmie-

wa/​.   

 
813 words

“Each day in the United States, ​over 8 people are killed and 1,161 injured in crashes

that are reported to involve a distracted driver.” -​By ​Angel Reyes III
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