As everyone is already aware, the first known pedestrian fatality caused by a robotic car occurred last week. While there is much speculation of "what if?" and "how come?," it's clear that the vehicle is at fault. While the driver might have been able to stop the car in time, a robotic driver is expected to do the same, but with a much faster reaction time. The engineers behind the algorithms controlling the car will update their programs and a similar incident will be unlikely to occur again. Elaine Herzberg literally gave her life in the name of science and has caused the self-driving world to reassess its progress at producing a viable product.
Imagine, if you will, a large safe suspended over your head. It is held securely in place by an electromagnet that is powered by the grid. If the power should fail, the safe will fall and you will likely be killed in the process. Would you trust the grid to keep you from dying? How about if you add a battery backup system to keep the electromagnet energized? Or a gasoline generator in case the power is off for an extended time? Would you ever come to accept this arrangement?
There is an irrational belief among many that computers are never wrong. However, their simple little minds are connected by physical paths that may, from time to time, fail somewhere in the myriad of silicon etchings. Most of these random failures are harmless, but statistical probabilities dictate that some are not. If your calculator gives you the wrong answer, it's not immediately life-threatening; but the failure of a sensor in your car's cruise control could be fatal.
In 1923, George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. His oft-quoted reply was reportedly "Because it's there ... Everest is the highest mountain in the world and no man has reached its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive; a part, I suppose, of man's desire to conquer the universe."
Do we really need self-driving cars? Or do we simply want them because of our desire to conquer the universe? After issuing his famous quotable words, George Mallory died in 1924 during his third attempt to conquer Mount Everest.
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