I read with a chuckle a letter to the editor in our local newspaper the other day about Google’s plan to introduce self driving cars to the North American car market.
The letter writer was complaining that if there are self driving cars these “soul-less machines” will have no accountability and that one of them will drive up onto the sidewalk and kill your grandmother. And there will be nobody to say they’re sorry.
His argument reminded me of a Facebook post I saw that said, and I’m paraphrasing here – the great thing about science is that even if you don’t believe in it, it’s still true. Same thing applies to facts.
See the facts and evidence in this case are that Google has had a fleet of self driving cars roaming around California that have logged more than 1,000,000 miles in the last few years. They are currently logging 10,000 miles a month.
In that time, the Google self driving cars have been involved in 11 collisions. None, none of which were the fault of the Google self driving car. None.
The fact is that a computer controlled car won’t get road rage. It won’t run a red light because it is late for a meeting or late getting the kids to school. It won’t have an ego that will make it want to race the car beside it and it will not travel along on our city streets at 80-100 kmh.
If anything, the Google self-driving car will probably keep your granny safer than she is with humans at the wheel of the car.