Imagine a world in which 17-year-old boys high on testosterone, misplaced bravado and poor decision-making skills have been given free rein to drive around in two-tonne weapons of mass destruction. Joining them on the mean streets of this dystopian underworld are similarly incendiary WMD owners such as the very old, the barking mad and bickering couples.
This world is, of course, the one we already inhabit. It’s a world that will shortly come to an end once autonomous vehicles bring order back to our streets. That day cannot come soon enough.
It’s been over 130 years since Frederick William Bremer became the first person to drive a four-wheeled, petrol-powered car on a UK public highway. Since then, there are thought to have been more than 550,000 motoring-related deaths in the country. Driving should be treated as a moral hazard.
The fact that we ever allowed ourselves dominion over fast-moving vehicles seems absurd even now, so imagine how irresponsible it will seem in a few years when fleshy, imperfect humans have been consigned to the back seat. Those still clinging to automotive freedom and the right to inflict death or serious injury on others will be viewed as pariahs.
Studies indicate that more than 70 per cent of us have concerns about autonomous vehicle safety in unpredictable situations. Yet much as I am convinced of my own impeccable driving skills, tests show that we humans are unsuited to operating complex machinery, with 93 to 95 per cent of crashes attributed to human error.
The technology works
Doubters should consider the recent story of a man from Georgia who credited Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology with saving his father’s life following a life-threatening heart attack. Jack Brandt, who was authorised on his father’s Tesla account, said that he used the car’s mobile app to remotely change the destination to the nearest hospital and that the car dutifully navigated through busy highway traffic, took the correct exit and drove to the emergency ward without breaking into an electronic sweat. Imagine if they’d had to wait for an ambulance.
If you’re still not convinced, Waymo estimates that its fully autonomous vehicles have been involved in 82 per cent fewer injury-causing crashes than an “average” human driver on comparable roads, based on an analysis covering over 170 million miles of autonomous driving in four cities. Unlike methodical, unflappable AI, we humans become emotionally volatile as soon as we get behind the wheel, which doesn’t help when, say, trying to negotiate the emotional trauma of the M25’s Wisley Interchange.
Many of us are lazy, impatient and impetuous – sometimes all at once. We cut corners and make stupid decisions based on incomplete data. Every one of us is susceptible to fatigue, hunger and unforeseen bladder emergencies. Eyesight and reaction times deteriorate with age, while retinas contain dangerous blind spots. Our minds wander, and we are easily distracted.
Errors of judgement
What I’m trying to say is that driving your own vehicle is an insanely risky undertaking, and yet we continue to underestimate not only our own fallibility but that of boy racers who think they’re indestructible.
But the risk is not only about errors of judgement. The human body is susceptible to all kinds of ailments that don’t wait for an opportune moment to strike. A few years ago my father suddenly lost his eyesight on the M6. Miraculously he made it to the hard shoulder without causing a catastrophic pile-up, but the odds were against him. Thankfully his eyesight returned, but he was in his mid-80s at the time, with failing health. Should he even have been driving at such an age? When does freedom become folly?
It’s no exaggeration to suggest that autonomous cars have the potential to save us from ourselves. The more you think about it, the more the benefits stack up. While autonomous vehicles work out the optimum route through rush-hour traffic we can get on with some work instead of raging at fellow road users. Shaking your fist at an autonomous vehicle won’t make it go any quicker, and you won’t even get the satisfaction of teaching it a lesson – AI pretends to care, but it doesn’t really.
Stop-start rush-hour traffic may even become a thing of the past as autonomous vehicles learn to maintain a safer distance than we tailgating humans ever did and stagger journeys.
Car ownership will seem a pointless luxury with so many cheap driverless taxis at our disposal. The only reason for owning an autonomous vehicle would be to make some extra cash hiring it to paying passengers.
Like every other petrolhead I will miss the freedom to take to the road in a manner of my own choosing, something I have enjoyed since those heady, testosterone-fuelled late-teenage years. But hitting the open road also comes with the risk of hitting brick walls, trees and mothers with prams.
Autonomy over private vehicles has come at a terrible cost. We should be grateful to our artificial overlords for taking driving responsibilities out of our fallible, unpredictable hands.