Special Report - Part Two: Pros and Cons of the Driverless Car

Last week I looked at the cost to the country that making driverless cars a reality could potentially amount to. I also questioned if it was all entirely necessary and if being pioneers of the driverless car is a vanity issue for the UK government. This week, I look at the pros and cons of the driverless car – what do you think?

I know that last week, I may have seemed a little harsh. Of course, there are benefits to the driverless car but as a true sports car enthusiast and at the same time, an avid supporter of environmentally-friendly vehicles, I think that de-humanising the driving experience would, for me, be a step too far.

But driverless cars do have their place – they must have, surely, or nobody would be spending millions of pounds making the driverless car a reality on the world’s roads.

Here are what I see as being the pros and cons of the driverless car:

Pros of the driverless car

 

1.      Driverless cars will reduce accidents

 

Being as the majority of car accidents are caused by human error driverless cars will reduce this risk substantially

2.      Driverless cars will stick to the rules of the road

 

I am assuming that driverless cars will be programmed to stick to the speed limits and observe the Highway Code to the letter

3.      Driverless cars will create jobs and be good for the economy

 

This is, of course, if any are sold (excluding fleet vehicles). Oh, and ignoring that many city taxi drivers may well find them out of a job.

Cons of the driverless car

 

1.      Some people actually like driving

 

Yes, some people do like driving. They don’t want to be driven everywhere.

2.      Computers and technology go wrong, too

 

What happens if the computer (machine?) says no? It does happen, after all. Most companies who have cut down on paper trails to become more reliant on computers will tell you that they have probably made sure that a basic old-fashioned system is there as back up. Just in case.

3.      Won’t driverless cars only work if all of the other cars on the road are the same?

 

If driverless cars mingle with real-life driver cars, how will this work? Will aggressive drivers overtake illegally / dangerously if the automated cars are going exactly at the speed limit (not that I am condoning this, I can just imagine it happening)? I just can’t see how the mix could possibly work – if it were in a city zone, perhaps, where everyone is crawling along and following each other etc. then perhaps, but who would buy a car just for city use alone?

4.      Will driverless cars be useless in non-city environments?

 

Getting back to my point above, what about when you get out of the main city, will the driverless car understand tractors, bikes, slow down for horses, going slower down lanes than normal roads? I just can’t see it unless there are very intelligent sensors everywhere (which there may well be).

What do I think?

 

I love cars so obviously, it is quite clear what I think.

But if successful roll-out of the driverless car saves even one life, it is a good thing. I am still open to discussion on the topic – at the moment however, it seems to me that the driverless car programme in the UK is one that could perhaps be seen as vanity.

Using money that we can’t, as a nation, afford to lose.

But that is just my opinion and I like to think that I am an open-minded kind of guy.

Let me know what you think @SamwaysCarTalk; it would be great to hear your thoughts on this very controversial motoring topic.