PROS
- According to Google spokesman Johnny Luu, 94% of accidents are caused by human error (Guynn, 2015).
- Computers are safer drivers, capable of calculating safe distances, appropriate stopping time, and the locations of many objects around them, all at once
- Computers do not have emotions, making road rage a thing of the past
- People in the car can relax and do other things while they are transported
- Google’s self-driving car could get seniors (and other people who may not be able to drive) out and about more; resulting in them earning more money, spend more and give the rest of the economy a lift (Fung, 2014).
- Extra navigation systems and maps would be unnecessary, as the car would use software to navigate
- Self-driving cars could indirectly save millions of lives. Nearly 1.3 million people are killed in car crashes globally every year, and the rate is increasing (Annual Global, n.d.)
- These vehicles can help reduce the cost of road crashes. “Road crashes cost the U.S. $230.6 billion per year” (Annual Global, n.d.).
CONS
- There is a high cost to create the technology as well as implement it
- Self-driving cars will be more effective if more of them exist on the road simultaneously, as they use sensors to communicate with each other
- The people in the car still need to know how to get it running/tell it where to go
- It could potentially decrease the amount of jobs in the transportation sector (driver’s ed. instructors, bus drivers, personal injury lawyers, cab drivers etc.)
- As with any innovation, there is the possibility the technology could fail.
- However, in accidents where Google’s self driving car was involved, 17 out of 18 accidents were due to human error and not due to Google’s car (Davies, 2016). Only once, on February 14, 2016, was Google’s car at fault (Davies, 2016). With over 1.3 million miles driven by these cars since 2009, the technology’s fail rate is low.