There is another major development in the world of driverless cars on the horizon. A recent announcement by Intel will not go over well with the general public, though; that much is a foregone conclusion. The company claims to have developed a system which ensures that self-driving vehicles can’t cause accidents. That’s a very bold claim that will need some solid evidence to be backed up. Making autonomous vehicles blameless is not necessarily the right option to pursue right now.
Driverless Cars Can’t be Blameless
Everyone who has ever worked with a computer program or piece of electronics will know there is no such thing as “blameless” in the world of technology. These things are created by humans, and despite some failsafes, it is impossible to guarantee everything will work flawlessly all the time. Especially with the growing focus on autonomous vehicles of all kinds now, a “blameless” solution seems further away than ever before.
If it is left up to Intel, however, that will no longer be the case. According to the company, its engineers have developed a system which prevents autonomous vehicles from causing accidents in which they are at fault. This only further confirms that driverless vehicles are more than capable of causing accidents in the first place, which has always been a major concern for most consumers and regulators. It is difficult to solve this problem right away, for obvious reasons.
Under the hood, Intel’s new solution combines a set of standards based upon mathematical formulas. These standards are designed to govern the behavior of driverless cars in the future. It seems this technology will also be usable with trucks, which sounds pretty promising. However, there are always two sides to any medallion. In Intel’s case, its new system would effectively shift the blame from the self-driving car to anyone else involved in the accident.
There is no question that we will see accidents involving autonomous vehicles sooner or later. The only question is when it will happen and how many people will be injured or killed as a result. Any issue caused by machines designed for mass production will be scrutinized by the general public. There is a dire need for solutions to prevent such accidents from happening in the first place, although that is much easier said than done.
While it is true that several companies are working on similar solutions, Intel is the first to claim to have a solid solution. It is evident autonomous vehicles will never become the new normal without a set of new standards capable of preventing the majority of accidents from happening. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever see car accidents in the driverless future, though, as all formulas are based on human knowledge. Sadly, our creations are never 100% safe, secure, or flawless.
Moreover, there is the question of whether or not the car industry will embrace Intel’s standards. Even then, all suppliers and manufacturers would need to integrate them into their creations. With the race to bring driverless cars to market heating up, it is unlikely the first generation of vehicles will benefit from this new development. Computers and software are brilliant creations, but they are still prone to error and mishaps.
