Self-Driving Cars for Testing Are Supported by U.S., published on May 30, 2013 in the New York Times, inform the people a new project that Google has worked on in recent years that will change driver’s lives on the road—the autonomous cars. The idea of this new creation is to adjust the car’s direction and to modify its speed depending on the location of the car. According to The Department of transportation, the semi-autonomous cars, if approved and met with appropriate regulation, will improve public safety significantly. In addition, the cars would yield more green spaces, save time and boost mobility for the disabled and the aging. In other projects, some of the best selling cars such as Mercedes-Benz and Ford with radar system will automatically deduce the speed when the vehicle is too close to another car, brake a car of an upcoming collision, and detect when a driver is tired or intoxicated. Vehicles like Toyota Pruises and Lexuses, which Google has invested most of its ideas in, require no human intervention at all.
However, the safety of the autonomous cars still remains a mystery. Mr Calo, a co-founder of Legal Aspects of Autonomous driving center at Stanford, believed that the new vehicles are too premature and need to be fully tested. Likewise, he said that “even if automated were safer, people should worry about human judgment.” In a poll taken by the Auto Alliance, 81% of the people were concerned that computer hackers can potentially take control of the automated vehicles. The uncertainty and doubt have created a huge controversy between Google and government regulation.
The National Highway Traffic Safety, nevertheless, finalized its policy statement and decided that driverless cars are unsafe and require a four-year research study to ensure the reliability of the technology. The agency also suggested special license for autonomous cars and buttons that can be easily controlled by drivers to lower the risks of accidents.
