Brainstorm

We have reached the age where almost anything you can think of is now possible. Communicating with people halfway across the globe? Done. Sending astronauts to the moon and back? Check. Performing surgery on a grape using highly advanced robotic technology? I mean, sure why not. If you’ve thought of it, someone’s already done it. But why stop there? Even though we are living in the most advanced time of civilization, what’s stopping us from going further than that? Everyday more and more innovations are being unveiled. One of these innovations that is soon going to hit the markets, is the long awaited Autonomous vehicle, also known as the self driving car. I for one am excited to witness a turning point in the automotive industry. If you think about it, it’s kind of like the moon landing of our generation, and we will be here to experience it first hand. How incredible is that? Less than a hundred years ago, cars were these weird bicycle looking things that broke down every so often (and if it did, you were probably never going to drive that piece of junk ever again), but now, companies are already releasing models of cars that are capable of driving themselves without a need for a pilot. I know that some of you might be thinking about that time were you got involved in an a car crash with a human driver and are saying “If I’ve already been rear ended on the road more than a few times by an actual living and breathing person, then I’m done for if I am sharing the road with a car with NO pilot.” I do understand why you might be thinking this but there is actually more to it than that. It’s not just a simple machine. This is the part where I raise you the question and ask you, my beloved readers, if autonomous vehicles have a place on our roads of today? I’m afraid that this is not one of our straightforward yes or no questions. In order to truly understand these sophisticated pieces of machinery, we must look at quite a few different things about them such as the engineering that defines them, the moral ethics (Believe it or not cars have moral standards)  and consequences, and finally their overall feasibility including their safety and reliability.

It was one of those nights where I was deep in the procrastination part of my studies when I stumbled upon a very interesting and thought provoking video on YouTube. The video starts off in a parking lot where some car enthusiasts are having some fun with the features of their Self Driving Tesla. While they were busy giving the driverless car orders to drive around the parking lot via their phone, a police cruiser pulls the car over. As the officer steps down and approaches the driver’s side of the car, he is surprised to find that there is in fact no one driving the car. 

Autonomous vehicles are a hot topic and many people are listening in on what millionaire tech moguls like the founder of Tesla  Elon Musk and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos are going to say next.