Development of autonomous cars has led to a number of concerns, including security issues.
From Tesla to Google, all of the major tech titans seem to be honing in on one thing: autonomous cars. Imagine a world where you don’t need to focus on driving during your day-to-day commute and can instead crack open a newspaper, sit back, and relax while in transit. As with most major technological shifts, the development of self-driving cars has present a number of unresolved issues that are worth thinking about, including security concerns, questions regarding safety, and the implementation of government regulations.
Security
Vehicles are often associated with a certain level of accountability—if you leave your vehicle parked next to a fire hydrant, you are responsible for any punitive actions that may come as a result. Some worry accountability will be diminished in an era of self-driving cars, but the reality is that it may increase our reliance on other technologies, such as intelligent license plate reading systems.
Another security concern associated with automated cars is their ability to be hacked and even potentially taken advantage of by terrorists or criminals. Self-driving cars could be loaded with explosives, indicating a need for better security technologies that can scan for scenarios like that, such as optical systems that scan beneath a vehicle.
Safety
Most experts predict that once driverless technology is fully implemented, most regular traffic incidents that are caused by human error will be reduced and fatalities will drop. In the interim, we may see difficulties with this—in March, for example, a woman was struck and killed by an automated vehicle in Arizona that was under testing by Uber. There are a lot of factors that go into making a successful self-automated car, and since these vehicles must be implemented to share roads with human drivers, it is important that they are reactive enough to safely operate on roads.
Legislation and Liability
Companies developing and testing automated driver technologies have already faced pushback from legislators and potentially for good reasons. It’s unclear as of now who is really liable in the event of an accident or fatality. Will drivers still have some ability to take control of a vehicle, and if so, does that make them liable? Or are the manufacturers and developers ultimately responsible for any mishaps that may come along the way? These are questions that anyone involved in automated cars, from the ground level up, have been considering.
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