Tesla Inc. is a known car manufacturer throughout the automotive industry and as well as in the Tech industry, for its sporty, aerodynamic shaped vehicles and its feature of self driving car computer system. From a recent article in the Daily Mail UK, World’s first self-driving Tesla taxis are set to hit the roads in Dubai by 2020, shows how Tesla inc. has gained trust in its electric self driving cars from a nation that has build its fortune from oil.
The authors purpose of writing this article is to inform people on the position of Tesla as a company and its growth and expansion into newer global market. Many of us might be hesitant to let a computer become our personal driver but this however is the future, as gradually more companies are including/planning on self driving car feature in its vehicle, as listed in this article. Expanding into a country who is rich in oil and open to using fully electric self driving vehicle is huge for the Tesla inc. and for the future of the automotive industry. The evidence from this reporting ca be analyzed by other countries who maybe want to move in this direction to have more sufficient cars on the road.
The findings in this article is to show the possibilities in our future to having self driving car just as an added feature in cars, just as we have lane departure warning as an option to be added in today’s car. Maybe A.M. Turing was right when he predicted that machines may be able to think in fifty years in 1950. “I believe that in about fifty years’ time it will be possible, to programme computers, with a storage capacity of about 109, to make them play the imitation game so well that…”(Turing,8). Although it will take people to get used to it at first, I believe that like every new technology, we as humans will adapt to it slowly. The use of Self driving taxis can also become a tourist attraction for many and benefit Dubai’s economy for the time being. Although it’s in early stages, one thing missing from this article is more information on how Tesla operates its self driving vehicles.
From the list of Lee Manovich’s new media principles, Self driving car falls under the characteristic of Automation because sensors and the software behind the Tesla vehicles uses “high-level” automation. According to the article by Manovich high level automation is automation, “which requires a computer to understand, to a certain degree, the meanings embedded in the objects being generated” (Manovich, 32). In this case when a sensor detects and an object, it is embedded in the computer to slowly slow down to stop.
- My first question would be, will you trust a self driving Uber car to pick you up and take you to your destination?
- Secondly, although Tesla has proven what its computers in its car can do, Do you think that fully self driving car will ever come to NYC where it’s constantly stop and go traffic?
I do believe that self driving cars can become a huge industry but not in big cities such as NYC. There is too much risk with the stop and go and I don’t believe it can be fully trustworthy. Maybe after a couple of tweaks after the original model is released but I don’t believe the first self driving car will be entirely reliable.