Autonomous Cars

Over the course of the semester I will be writing about the possible impact that autonomous cars will have on our society moving forward. Technology today is advancing faster than we can keep up with and that is especially true when it comes to autonomous cars.  We are already seeing Tesla and Uber already putting autonomous cars on the road today, but some people are not completely on board with their implementation just yet. There are still a lot of safety and ethical concerns that need to be addressed and discussed by the government, the private sector and everyone else on the road.

In the reading Bowen and Scott talk about Vincent Ruggiero’s use of rhetoric in the field of technical and professional communications. Ruggiero states that there are three types of ethical criteria when communicating: obligations, ideals, and consequences.  These three criteria are directly applicable to the discussion about the future of autonomous cars.  The companies that are in any way involved in the production of these cars have the obligation to provide a product that is safe to the public, as well as the obligation to clearly define the capabilities of the car. The government has the obligation to properly regulate and oversee their production, especially in the early years of their implementation. The ideal of safety has a huge role to play in the introduction of autonomous cars into the market. They have the potential to drastically reduce the number of accidents on the road and they could save thousands of lives a year.  Safety is a central theme in the business world and in the public space, highlighting it as a benefit of having autonomous cars could be very effective. The last thing to consider is the consequences of the communication.  If the obligations of the any party involved are not met or the ideals are off base, the result could be horrible. However, if the first two criteria are satisfied, the benefits of autonomous cars are endless.