Journal #6 by Hao Zhang

Chris Urmson is head of engineering for Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, and he wrote an article which entitled “Progress in Self-Driving Vehicles”. In his article, he argues that self-driving vehicles are important for these reasons. Traffic accidents has become the main cause of death, and self-driving vehicles can avoid human error to reduce accidents. They can also improve the problem of traffic congestion and air pollution which is more and more serious in cities, when deployed as shared vehicle. Furthermore, they should give the ability of getting around to people who cannot drive.

Recent data from Institution of Mechanical Engineers shows that 56% of public make it clear that they won’t buy a self-driving vehicle. Most people worry about the security of self-driving vehicle, and it is still a question whether self-driving vehicle is smart enough to ensure people’s safety. Time is needed to verify the reliability of self-driving vehicle and to make it acceptable by most people. On the other hand, self-driving vehicle which works like a robot faces the ethical and legal issues. For example, who should be responsible for traffic accident caused by self-driving vehicle, driver or manufacturers? It has already arouses controversy among American legal scholars. Furthermore, self-driving vehicle should obey the three laws of robotics which set that robots may not injure a human being. But in some complex condition, such as that driver has to sacrifice himself to prevent car from thrusting into a group of children, would self-driving vehicle make the same choice as human? Compared with technical problems, ethical and legal issues are more difficult to be solved.

As for me, I won’t be the first person to try automated vehicle because of the reasons above. But I believe that with development of self-driving vehicle and spread among people, all the problems could be figured out one day soon.