The technology that my group chose for our project was the self-driving car. I found this technology to be extremely interesting throughout my research. The self-driving car utilizes many different technologies in order for it to operate. Through the use of cameras, sensors, radar, and scanning laser range finders, the software that operates the car can build a better picture of the world around it. The advantages of this technology are that it will greatly reduce traffic accidents, improve the flow of traffic, and provide a more convenient way for people to travel. It will also save companies, such as Uber, a lot of money by eliminating the cost of employing drivers. This technology also has advantages in other areas besides the commercial
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When driving a car, people have a better understanding of what is happening in the world around them. For example a human can determine whether a person is walking across the street versus a bicyclist or if there is simply a random object sitting in the middle of the road. Those working on the self-driving car technology are facing the challenge of finding a way to “train” (Andrew Culhane from Torc Robotics) the software to be able to assess these different situations the same way a human being would. Another disadvantage or challenge facing this technology is the resistance to change that will most likely occur as the self-driving car becomes more commercialized. I know personally that the concept of a looking over and not seeing a person in the driver’s seat of the car next to me would really freak me out. Currently, I would not feel comfortable getting in a vehicle that was not being operated by a human being. As the technology advances and becomes more prevalent, I believe people (and myself) will start to develop more faith in the self-driving car but that seems very far off in the future. For this reason, our tour guide at Torc explained that the next step in the self-driving car technology will include an option to shift the car into a manual setting so that a human being can take
When driving a car, people have a better understanding of what is happening in the world around them. For example a human can determine whether a person is walking across the street versus a bicyclist or if there is simply a random object sitting in the middle of the road. Those working on the self-driving car technology are facing the challenge of finding a way to “train” (Andrew Culhane from Torc Robotics) the software to be able to assess these different situations the same way a human being would. Another disadvantage or challenge facing this technology is the resistance to change that will most likely occur as the self-driving car becomes more commercialized. I know personally that the concept of a looking over and not seeing a person in the driver’s seat of the car next to me would really freak me out. Currently, I would not feel comfortable getting in a vehicle that was not being operated by a human being. As the technology advances and becomes more prevalent, I believe people (and myself) will start to develop more faith in the self-driving car but that seems very far off in the future. For this reason, our tour guide at Torc explained that the next step in the self-driving car technology will include an option to shift the car into a manual setting so that a human being can take