Driverless Cars

April 13, 2015

Greetings from Ten and Two,

Not many years ago elevators were operated by a person.  A smartly dressed man or woman would open the door, allow you to step in the car, and then ask you ‘Floor please?’  You would state your destination and they would operate a handle, as they had been trained, and guide the metal box upward to the floor you wished.  As you got off the Operator would tell you to have a nice day.  Aww,.. quaint.

Of course, in the interest of time and efficiency, these positions have been eliminated, and now elevators zoom up and down their shafts managed by some algorithm no one can fathom, including whoever programmed the computers who manage the process now.  Waiting for an elevator, repeatedly pushing the ‘Up’ button, watching the floor numbers above the door light up in some comical random order, one might be tempted to think a practical joke is being played.  Aww, …progress.

When I first heard that there were autonomous cars being developed, I was reminded that the first generation of homeless people were all elevator operators.  Then we added whoever used to write the really good greeting cards, who have also been replaced by computers, which is how we ended up with ‘Blank Inside’ cards. 

Fifty miles from here, millions of dollars are being spent experimenting with cars that drive themselves.  The question that first popped into my head: Why?  I didn’t say that out loud because I was afraid someone would tell me, “So we can text and drive, stupid!” and I would lose all hope for humanity. 

It occurred to me that maybe the idea was to replace all the taxi drivers with computers, so that homeless elevator operators and greeting card writers would have someone new to talk to.  But that process has already begun with ‘Lyft’ and ‘Uber’, and the new upstart ‘Kidnap’.  So what is the purpose of cars that drive themselves? 

The answer, at least the one that appears most often in computer-generated PR releases, is to create cars that drive better than humans do, so that there are fewer accidents and traffic snarls.  The hope is that engineers will develop the cameras and sensing equipment, the mechanics to steer, accelerate, and brake, and the software to manage them, and then interact with every other car on the road, not to mention the errant squirrel, homeless librarians begging at busy intersections, and shovel-leaning road repair workers, who in fact are former grocery cashiers who were replaced by self-checkout kiosks.  Hence the surly countenance.

  

In spite of the hilarious previous paragraph, I believe the technology will evolve and we will one day have driverless cars.  The next question should be ‘Just because we can, should we?’

By the way, I am not some Luddite who sits in candlelight trimming my toenails with garden tools because I don’t want machines to rule the world.  But, I have reservations.  (Not ‘reservations’ like you make with your Expedia app, which replaced the travel agents who currently are greeting people at Walmart.)

The technology is already helping us.  I have been in cars with sensing equipment built in to aid the driver’s monitoring the traffic around him.  From what I can see, this is a positive development.  It is a place where what we create is enhancing our life.  But, in spite of the safety motive, every step toward replacing the human in the process has a cost. And I don’t mean jobs.

Recently I read that some software programmers have included Road Rage in the computer’s repertoire of audio responses while driving.  ‘Where were you when they were handing out driver’s licenses?’ the  monotone comgen voice snaps when another motorist cuts in front of the Google driverless car.  This made me laugh, but it also made me a little nauseous to think that a computer was also going to assume my responsibilities for an emotion.

The concept of the autonomous car is a noble one, probably.  The fact that most accidents are caused by human error seems compelling enough, that evidently we can’t be trusted with our own safety.  So perhaps computers can protect us from ourselves.  Maybe we can be saved by technology from our own aggression, bad choices, short attention span, and distracted responses in dangerous situations.  Maybe an autonomous car will prevent us from wandering around Walmart parking lot trying to remember where we parked.  Wow, how is it we ever got driver’s licenses to begin with?

There was a day when I first learned to ride my bicycle with ‘no hands’.  Teetering on two wheels, pedaling along at a wobbly five miles an hour, my hands outstretched, nervous at first, then more confident as the forward motion stabilized my steering.  Nudging the bike with subtle adjustments from my legs and torso.  Over time my balance improved, my confidence grew and I became expert at riding with no hands.  There was a time when I have ridden twenty miles or more like this, gliding along, arms relaxed, sitting comfortably, watching the landscape roll by.

And when I needed to I leaned over and grabbed the handlebars and turned or stopped.

The process was exhilarating, although slightly risky.  But I learned how to balance, how to adjust, how to respond.  In that process developed an instinct, a sense, that is still with me. It’s possible that science could develop the software and engineer the hardware to replace me riding a bike, save me from the risk and difficulty, but should I let it?

Apples and oranges, you might say. (Or Apples and Androids) Ok, I am not spending a lot of valuable hand-wringing time on this.  I expect that if there is a demand for driverless cars, they will be built.  By then we will probably all be telecommuting from our iPad at home, so the highways will be lined with empty cars zooming along at the optimum safe speed. 

The word ‘progress’ implies that an innovation supplies an improved outcome.  Autonomous cars might be progress, sort of like the autonomous elevator.  I mean, now that we have all this free time on the elevator we can chat with our fellow travelers and develop friendships and exchange ideas. 

Or we can just stand with our hands clasped in front of us and watch the numbers change on the digital readout over the door and try to remember where we parked the car.  Aww, …progress.

Hope this finds you with your eyes on the road,

David

Copyright © 2015 David Smith