NAIROBI, Kenya – In the last decade, self-driving cars have transitioned from futuristic concepts to real-world phenomena, promising a revolution in transportation.
Supporters of this technology foresaw it as a cure for traffic woes, highlighting benefits like increased safety, reduced traffic congestion, and greater mobility for those unable to drive.
However, as these autonomous vehicles become more prevalent, unforeseen consequences are emerging, painting a more complex picture of their impact on society.
Industry expert Mary “Missy” Cummings, a professor of engineering and computer science and former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) adviser, has raised concerns on the current state of self-driving technology, especially its reliance on machine learning.
“When you take a machine-learning algorithm and apply it to a million images, it’s looking for pixelated statistical correlations between those pixels and the image,” she noted.
This means the system might misinterpret a stop sign, or worse, miss an obstacle altogether due to erroneous associations within the data.
One particularly troubling phenomenon is “phantom braking,” where vehicles come to an abrupt stop for obstacles that aren’t actually there.
“We don’t know why the computer vision systems detect obstacles that the human eye cannot see,” Cummings explained.
This unpredictable behavior underscores the need for a more reliable solution.
Self-driving cars are also raising significant legal and ethical questions. The occurrence of accidents involving autonomous vehicles has sparked debates over liability.
Determining who is at fault—the car manufacturer, the software developer, or the vehicle owner—remains a legal grey area.
Another challenge is that autonomous vehicles were initially publicized as environmentally friendly due to their potential to reduce traffic congestion and optimize fuel consumption.
However, the convenience of self-driving cars has led to an increase in vehicle miles traveled, as people opt for the comfort and ease of personal autonomous vehicles over public transportation.
This surge in usage has contributed to higher emissions and increased energy consumption, challenging the environmental benefits.
Additionally, with advanced sensors and continuous connectivity, self-driving cars collect huge amounts of data, raising serious privacy concerns.
The ability of these vehicles to track movements and behaviors poses risks of data breaches and unauthorized surveillance.
Users are increasingly wary of how their information is used and shared; prompting calls for more robust data protection measures.
