Self-driving cars

Friday

Ross Anderson

Tesla’s Cybercab promises a better future — for Elon Musk

Each year, more than 40,000 people die in car accidents — and most of them are caused by user error. Set aside drunk driving and texting and live-streaming while driving a McLaren in the rain; even in normal conditions, humans are just not, fundamentally, great drivers. So imagine a future without that; where death by car accident is a freak occurrence and driving is handled by expert computers instead. We don’t use elevator operators anymore and are glad for it — and autopilot systems have long made flights safer. Why not let computers drive us too? True “Level 4” autonomous cars wouldn’t just make commutes more pleasant, letting you read or sleep as your car takes you to work, but save many, many lives. I believe in that future.

tesla

Sunday

Bill Zeiser

Could self-driving cars threaten our humanity?

There is a trope in science fiction movies in which some alien or machine intelligence determines that humans are a scourge, and that in order to protect the galaxy, humanity must be eradicated. There is no shortage of examples, but some personal favorites include The Day the Earth Stood Still, Alien and Planet of the Apes. And who could forget the T-800’s grim prognostication in Terminator 2 that 'it’s in your nature to destroy yourselves'? Back in the real world, we aren’t quite at the point of developing an artificially intelligent Skynet that will take control of our nukes and bring about our collective demise. But a Vox piece from last week leaves me concerned that we’re headed in the wrong direction.

cars