I remember those days when I used to tag along with my dad whenever we are going to farm or market. My dad is a very calm driver but no matter how calm he is he always eventually have to curse either a motorcycle, tricycle/auto-rickshaw or Car driver. You might wonder why would someone I described to be calm feel the need to curse someone on the road, the truth is he couldn't help it. For anyone who has driven in any area of Lagos you might understand what I'm saying a lot better. The thing about my neighbourhood is that we have a lot of drivers but that doesn't mean all of them are sane. My dad would always say, whenever you are driving in any part of Lagos or anywhere always have it in mind that you are the only one that is sane among everyone on the road, having this in mind will prevent you from getting into any kind trouble on the road.
There are a lot challenges with transportation in my area, ranging from bad roads. This happens to be one of the major causes of road accident and transportation misfortunes in my country. I remembered the first time I traveled to sagamu in Ogun State that was the first time I experienced a container falling off from a truck. On this particular road before it was innovated about a year ago, every car passing by had to bend to the side as if they are climbing a crane bridge. This sometimes result to cars and trucks falling off the road or somersaulting. And then we have insane drivers, most of these drivers are quite aware of the condition of the road, instead of trying to navigate the road carefully just like every other driver, they try going through the rough road with high speed eventually causing loss of lives and property.
You might think what does this have to do with innovative cars such as self driving cars. Most manufacturers of all kind of innovative cars can only see as far as their eyes can see, which means they manufacture cars based on the environment they are aware of. This is a kind of limitation for a car that was produced to be driven on a smooth and tidy road, driving such cars in an environment where at least 50% of the roads are bad, not to talk of lack of traffic regulations compared to the ones that exist in developed countries. I'm a fan of fancy cars with amazing features but it is just fantasy because I'm quite aware of the conditions of roads in my environment using a car that is not suitable for my environment will definitely lead to issues.
Being aware of all these issues, would I be willing to buy a self-driving car? The answer is no. A self driving car is programmed to be suitable for specific environment not all. In my part of the world where abnormalities have become normal, a self driving car that is programmed to cope with what is normal can't survive. Imagine driving on roads that pot holes are more than the population of humans in that environment, majority of drivers that drive through such roads make use of their instinct which is derived from a long time experience of making use of the road. I can't imagine a self driving car doing the same, afterall a self driving car is a product of human intelligence. So I strongly believe its abilities is limited in some situations compared to a human driver.
Apart from this, there is another reason why I wouldn't give a self driving car a try even if I'm in an environment that is conducive for it. There is no way on earth I'm putting my life in the hands of a machine. Call me paranoid but the truth is that anything digital is always prone to all sort of glitches. Imagine driving on the highway on full speed, that is when your self driving car decided to reboot or take a nap what do you think would happen in that situation or probably it got hacked. There are cases whereby cars lose control, for most experienced human drivers they always find ways to make sure to reduce the fatality of the accident, even if it means running off the road to avoid colliding with other vehicles. Now imagine a self driving car in that situation, the driver is not human, so there is nothing like fear of death or injury. What are the chances that such a car will put other people's lives into consideration afterall it is just a machine.
I'm not against self driving cars, I just believe driving demands a human touch but then in cases where such self driving cars are involved in an accident, who should be blamed? It is definitely the owner of the car. He/she chose to buy the car and place it on the road, so whatever issue arises from the usage of such a car, the owner of the car will definitely be the first to be held responsible before any other thing is put into consideration. Dangote trucks for example, if any of his truck is involved in any kind of accident, we all blame Dangote not the manufacturers of the trucks.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Self driving cars" in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
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