Are Driverless Cars a Good Idea?

Driverless cars were once just the stuff of science fiction. But in recent years, they’ve become a reality—and now they’re cruising the streets in a number of U.S. cities.

Companies like Uber, Google, and Waymo are currently testing hundreds of self-driving vehicles on roads in Arizona, California, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and other states.

Supporters of driverless cars say the vehicles will make roads safer by cutting down on the number of crashes caused by distracted driving and other human errors. Another advantage: Self-driving cars could help people who are unable to drive themselves get where they need to go.

But critics say the advantages of driverless cars have been over­estimated. They claim that it’s too soon to tell whether automated vehicles will reduce accidents. In fact, a pedestrian was killed by one of Uber’s driverless test cars in 2018. That led the company to suspend all of its test drives for nine months. Opponents also question whether driverless cars will be able to operate in bad weather, because heavy rain or snow could interfere with the vehicles’ sensors.

Are driverless cars a good idea? Two experts weigh in.

Americans love their cars. The typical household owns at least two and spends more money on vehicles than on any other expense besides housing. In many places, Americans must drive to get to work or school, go shopping, or visit the doctor.

This dependence on driving has many disadvantages. For one thing, transportation contributes more to climate change than any other part of the U.S. economy. Most self-driving cars, however, are electric. That means they don’t produce emissions that harm the planet. Even better, automated vehicles will likely be used for ride-sharing services similar to UberPool. That would further reduce air pollution and congestion because fewer vehicles would be on the road.

Driverless cars can also make roads safer. In 2019, more than 38,800 people died in crashes in the U.S., according to federal data. That’s more than 100 per day! About half of crashes happen because of drunk driving, distracted driving, or speeding. Self-driving cars—which use sensors that see in all directions and don’t get distracted—eliminate those risk factors.

Plus, self-driving cars will help people who can’t drive themselves to get around. That includes individuals with disabilities and older Americans who can no longer drive safely.

Self-driving cars offer the promise of a safer, more efficient, and more accessible transportation system. Over the past decade, companies like Google and Aptiv have poured billions of dollars into making them a reality. While it will be years before they’re part of everyday life for most Americans, self-driving cars represent a chance to rebuild the transportation system and improve life for millions of people.

—Amitai Bin-Nun, Vice President, Autonomous Vehicles,
Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE)

Driverless cars sound like a good idea. After all, who wouldn’t love using technology to improve safety and efficiency? If only it were that simple.

The reality, however, is that driverless doesn’t mean humanless. Software and sensors may curb the need for human skill, but they rarely (if ever) take away that need entirely. The reason? Machines are imperfect. Like humans, they make mistakes. When machines that flip burgers or pick fruit break down, the impact is minor. But when it comes to driverless cars, any errors can be deadly.

Take, for example, the airplane autopilot. Introduced in 1912, the system is designed to automatically balance a plane so human pilots don’t have to. The result is a smoother, safer ride. But autopilot doesn’t always work properly, and that raises serious safety concerns. In 1985, a jumbo jet nearly crashed after the autopilot was unable to correct a serious safety risk. As a result, the plane went into a high-speed dive. Fortunately, human pilots were able to take control and avoid disaster.

Incidents like that one remind us that machines can’t be trusted to get it right every time. Driverless cars are no different.

In fact, we’ve already seen how deadly they can be. In 2016, a man was killed when his self-driving car ran into the side of a truck in broad daylight. An investigation found that the car’s cameras had failed to spot the white truck against the bright sky. In 2018, a pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle using driverless technology. Investigators blamed the woman’s death, in part, on the system’s inability to predict pedestrian behavior.

Unless the technology behind driverless cars is guaranteed to be 100 percent safe (which it can’t be), entrusting automated vehicles with control over our lives isn’t just unlikely. It’s irresponsible.

—Ashley Nunes, Transportation Innovation Researcher,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology