Exciting Idea… But Are We Really Close?
We’ve all heard the buzz: “Driverless cars are coming! Soon we won’t have to drive ourselves at all!” It sounds wonderful, especially as staying mobile becomes more important with age. Who wouldn’t want a car that chauffeurs you safely wherever you need to go? But the truth is… we’re not there yet. In fact, we’re not even close.
First: Driverless cars work best when every vehicle around them can communicate. They information about location, speed, and intentions. They’re safe the vehicles “talk” to each other through their technology. We have it now! However, only people who can afford high-end vehicles (like Teslas) have this advanced technology. The rest of us are driving regular cars that weren’t built to “chat” with anything. Today’s roads are a mix of smart and not-so-smart cars, which makes fully driverless travel incredibly tricky. That’s not quite ready for everyday life.
Second: Cities have an advantage: they have clear lane markings, predictable layouts, and even technology built into intersections and roadways. Driverless cars love that. But making roads “smart” is expensive and resource rich. What happens in rural or suburban areas where there’s simply too much ground to cover? There are too many roads, spread over too many miles, to upgrade affordably. These systems are likely to stay in large cities for a long time.
Third: Then there is the weather. Driverless cars depend on cameras and sensors that need to see clearly. Snow, dirt, rain, and salt can cover lane lines and the sensors themselves. When that happens, the system can’t function. That means most northern states would struggle immediately because if the car’s technology can’t see the road, technology simply can’t work.
Fourth: Driverless cars make decisions based on algorithms – remember they are computers. Engineers try to plan for everything but imagine this scenario: A child runs into the street.
The only way to avoid the child is to swerve but into another car with several passengers. What should the car choose? Humans improvise. Computers can’t; they need rules ahead of time. That’s a huge challenge, and there’s no answer everyone agrees on.
Finally, who is responsible when something goes wrong? Is it the driver who is not controlling the vehicle? The company that built the vehicle? The people who developed the software or the insurance companies? These questions need to be sorted out belong launching a full scale introduction to driverless vehicles on all roads.
In the meantime, however, current technology features clearly help older adults stay independent longer! Best options include blind spot alerts, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warnings, and backup cameras.
