It almost becomes mind-numbing for a veteran reporter: The weather warms, more people hit the roads and … tragedies result.
I’ve written far, far too many fatal traffic crash stories over the years. You’d have to be inhuman not to ponder, while waiting for the road to reopen and the tragic details to emerge: What if it were me, or my spouse or a family member or best friend?
I have a better what if. Scarier, perhaps, to some, but hopeful to others: What if our cars drove themselves? They couldn’t do any worse, could they?
Google is pressing ahead with its self-driving cars — the latest version doesn’t even have brakes or a steering wheel. Scary!
And yes, folks who have to reboot or kick their computers or trade in their phones for one that works right might say: Whoa, wait a minute, hold on!
And if Americans let cars do the driving — a big if, in some ways — and the inevitable computer-caused fatal crash occurred, would we revolt and flee back to our “safer” human-driven cars?
The armchair quarterbacks flourish in the wake of such vehicular tragedies, blaming everything imaginable. All too human a reaction in the wake of yet another lost life.
But seriously, think about it — if enough fail-safes and redundancy were built into these self-driving cars, wouldn’t they save lives? I guess it’s a huge neon “it depends” — how well we design them, how costly they are, if they also save us time or money or allow us to sit back, relax, stir our cappuccinos and enjoy a trip to work — with the advantages of private vehicles, but greatly reducing the dangers of distracted, drunk or unskilled drivers.
There are no “perfect” solutions, or infallible sets of technology. But as I sit and have time to wait for the details of the latest life taken all too soon – whether it’s their “fault” or someone else’s, or a blown tire or sun in the eyes etc. etc. — it does leave one thinking, couldn’t the self-driving car of the future do it better than we far more fallible humans do?
Leave it to Barney 