Tag Archives: Driverless cars

General

Fourth Amendment and Driverless Cars…

Pardon me for once again offering a link to an article involving, yes, Driverless Cars and their impact on society.

Only this time, we go to the legal field, to the effect Driverless Cars will have on our Fourth Amendment rights…

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.

The article in question, written by John Frank Weaver and found on Slate.com, can be read here:

The Fourth Amendment and Driverless Cars

Driverless cars, by their very nature, are technological machines that require considerable computer equipment to perform their functions.  Because they are essentially moving computers, they will likely have considerable memory of their function and movement.

Currently, Mr. Weaver notes, there are cases involving search and seizure of smartphones, noting that because of the volume of information they hold, from emails to photographs to phone calls to contacts, etc. etc. etc., that police should have to request a proper warrant to look into any individual’s smartphone and cannot simply take it from a person and look at the information within it without doing so.

Driverless Cars, when they become what I suspect they will be in the very near future, present a very similar issue.  There is no doubt they will have records of where someone has been taken, where they left the car, when they returned to it, and, given the levels of technology in the vehicles, perhaps even conversations they had (if the car has its own cell phone device), etc.

An interesting read!

General

Autonomous Autos…again

If you’ve followed my ramblings you know that I’m incredibly fascinated with the concept of the self-driving car.  Any stray article that comes my way about this potentially revolutionary new field (once its implemented) and its impact on our society has my attention.

What’s most fascinating is the fact that there are so many factors to consider when/if such a technology becomes the norm, something I suspect will happen soon rather than later.

For example, how will such a technology affect the economy?  Will we need to buy vehicles for ourselves if we can simply “order” a driverless car to come pick us up with our smartphone and have it take us wherever we need?  Will driverless cars lead to significantly less traffic and accidents and deaths (I suspect yes).

But there is one thing I hadn’t considered until now: Will safer driverless vehicles be allowed to run at greater and greater speeds and will this, in turn, allow us to live farther and farther away from our worksites?  If that’s the case, how will that affect the environment?

Joseph Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto offer a fascinating article regarding just this issue for Slate magazine.  I highly recommend those interested in this emerging technology give it a read.  Just click on the link below:

The Long Road Home

General

More self-driving cars…

Found this article today about Google’s new driverless prototype car, a tiny little thing capable of seating two and intended to be used as a constant motion “taxi”:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/28/google-self-driving-car-prototype-driverless-car-could-change-transportation.html

For those too lazy to click the link, here’s a little video (a perhaps too sugary one) of the new prototype:

I’ve been increasingly curious about Google’s work in the field of driverless cars, and have come to the conclusion that they’re about to create something that will indeed revolutionize the world…at least the moment this technology is given the OK and is put into (ahem) motion.

Imagine: Thanks to this particular technology, there may come a time people no longer will you have to actually own a car.

If you live in the city, you initiate an app on your smartphone/tablet/whathaveyou and it will signal your driverless vehicle to come pick you up wherever you are.  You get into said vehicle (there could be hundreds of them buzzing around a city at any time), indicate where you want to go, then charge the ride on another app and sit back and read/watch/listen to whatever you have while the vehicle takes you to your destination.

True, you can do this with a taxi today, but this can be quite expensive.  With these light, probably very fuel efficient mini-vehicles which have no driver to pay, I’m guessing the ride will wind up being quite cheap.  If it costs in the neighborhood of the price of riding a bus, only you will get right to your destination and you don’t have to share your ride with anyone you don’t want to, then what’s not to love?

Once you reach your destination and get out of the vehicle, it will find the next closest “client” and continue its unending trip, person to person and place to place.

Amazing.

And scary.

Think about this, too: This technology will clearly impact the taxi and public transportation business.  Taxis as we know them may go the way of the blacksmith.  And, as this technology is more refined, what happens to other professional drivers?  Could this technology not be used on transport trucks?  Will there be a time the big rigs we see out there are driven by…no one?  What of the auto insurance industry?  If there comes a time when driverless cars are the norm and fewer and fewer people actually own their own car and instead use these mini-cars, what becomes of all the people in that particular business?  Should we care?

Computer technology has had a staggering effect on society and the economy.  We no longer have record stores and it looks like book stores may be a thing of the past as well.  In fact, we buy more and more merchandise online each day.  Now, with the very real possibility that driverless car technology is in our very near future, other changes are inevitable.

Stay tuned.