Self-Driving Cars: Safe or Scary?

Talking about self driving cars, I don't think I've seen one before. But I've seen it in movies countless times. I have also seen it on the internet where people were amazed at it's sight, some were even looking inside the driver sit and and doing videos while shouting up and down that the car is driving by itself while trying to navigate the roads and slow down in the traffic.

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And for me, I think it's a beautiful idea, but then there are two sides to a coin. Let's imagine and elderly man or woman who's already aged in years and needed something to ease their going to get groceries, or going to the clinic or religious centers. We know aged people to have frail body with shaky hands and bad eyesight. Such a car can come in handy for them.

Aside aged people, we have some people who drive while they are drunk, or let's just say someone who's so tired or get sick from work and needs to go home on time, or to the hospital, instead of struggling with the wheels and managing themselves to hit the various pedals, they will have it easy with a self driving car.

But like I said earlier, there are two sides to a coin. The fact that it's good does not mean it won't have its own other side. What if there's a glitch or something happens and the car begins to malfunction, maybe it sensor, maybe the network, maybe you're even in a busy/school road and the car no longer slows down or listens to instructions. What would you do at that time, knowing fully well that you're inside the car but you're not in control of it. That helpless feeling on its own can be devastating.

Now, let's come back home, home here in Nigeria. I don't think such cars are built for our kind of roads. In Nigeria you can see people crossing any how, a lot of vehicles don't even follow speed limits or road signs, some areas don't even have traffic lights and the ones who do, very few people follows it. Those kind of cars I believe are built to follow certain orders, and such orders are not entirely evident in our own environment. You will be driving right behind a bus or Keke napep and without thinking twice the bus will just make a quick stop or delve into another lane just because of a passenger. Is that the kind of roads a self driving car will tread on....

And as I was saying earlier, things can definitely go wrong, might be a glitch, something might reset in it if it hits a pothole suddenly, there might be errors or certain software updates that may be needed at times.

So when any of this happens and it leads to an accident or something, who should take the blame?

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I'm not even thinking that twice, I don't even want to consider any other option. To me, the owner should be held accountable. You were the one who saw it and decided to spend your money on it, the manufacturer only built it, and the seller only displays it for sale, you went there to buy it yourself because you feel you can trust it.

Is just like when you have a dog, and one day the dog decides to cause harm to a kid walking by on his own in the neighborhood, won't we need to ask for the owner of the dog, won't we hold the owner accountable, why not keep your dog indoor, why not monitor it, why not check if it showing signs of going wild and all, same goes to the owner of the car.

Machines can be funny, it might act well today and tomorrow it will refuse to do anything, including the ones we drive ourselves too. So, it's important that we be very careful with such because a little mistake might lead to something we never planned for.

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