Why we need self driving cars

After being enlightened about Google’s new self-driving electric car, I spent my whole afternoon cheating on FIFA whilst reading about this god-sent technology.

Instead of a steering wheel and pedals this battery-powered electric vehicle has as a stop-go button. These novel prototypes have a plastic build for the most part. But they have limited speed as a battery/electric propulsion system restricts the maximum speed to about 40kph (25 mph). Google has planned to manufacture around 200 of these extremely cute, mostly-plastic cars over the next year, albeit restricting road testing to California for the next couple of years.

Well, now without any further ado, allow me to tell you why we need self-driving cars:

1.      1.First and foremost, we humans are flawed beings! We snooze, we text, we eat behind the wheel. Not to mention drunk imbeciles revolting against speed limits and traffic rules! Road accidents have become such a primary cause of death in our country that probably even the “Grim Reaper” is begging for mercy. More than 100,000 deaths due car accidents and there are dimwits who’ve still failed to learn.

2.We need these cars to take over roads soon for there is definitely a plentitude from our flawed race who’ll follow suit!

2.      Now, questions like “how much will these cars cost?” will arise. But instead of thinking superficially, we should delve deeper and look at the fact that there’s a plethora of disabled people in the world who work. We can’t ignore how this technology could transform the lives of the elderly or the disabled.

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3.      3.The cars use a mixture of 3D laser-mapping, GPS, and radar to analyze and interpret their surroundings. The radar is interesting as it allows the car to see through objects, instead of relying on line-of-sight. As of now they can’t process a variety of complex situations. But, Google is hoping that with significant development, eventually the cars will be able to handle all of this as well (or better) than a human can.

4.      4.These cars are adorable!

If you take other EVs into consideration like the Tesla Model S or the Toyota Prius, they have a more aggressive and demeaning stance. And the most intriguing thing is that these cars were designed to look so endearing. Why so? Well, the answer to that is human psychology.  Our brains are hardwired to treat inanimate or animate objects with utmost care, caution and reverence if they resemble living things because our moral compasses would snap into place

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      5.There’ll definitely be myriad skeptics who’ll think how autonomous vehicles could take over the highway. But what they need to understand is that a robot is differentiating cars from pedestrians. Millions of photons are being fired from a laser and interpreting, processing, and reacting to the hand signals of a biker, while doing so. We need to understand that instead of an organic brain which has had millions of years to evolve and yet fumbles at intersections, an artificial brain which was born less than a decade will be our chauffer. And it obviously needs to evolve.

      So why don’t we ignore some temporary shortcomings and thank Google for trying to eliminate human error from a chore which has been entirely controlled by humans for decades.

Let’s embrace innovation and get ready for a revolution in transportation.