Self-Driving Cars Analysis

I recently read an article on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) website that was called Self-Driving Cars Speed Ahead. The article was about developing technology that allows cars to drive by themselves without any human interaction. The article is very credible because it is published by a very well distinguished association of mechanical engineers. The ASME has been around since 1880 and has been devoted to the betterment of engineering ever since. Because of these reasons, I believe this article to be very credible.

Upon reading the first few lines, I picked up on a very excited tone. The author seems very optimistic about the new technology. You can see the excitement in this sentence: "Already the Stanford Audi has performed on the Utah Salt Flats, climbed Pikes Peak and raced to 120 mph on California’s Thunderhill Raceway, finishing the twisting 3-mile road course in under two and a half minutes." Words like raced and twisted are very descriptive words that paint a picture in your head of what the car is doing. This implies an exciting tone because the author wants the reader to experience the thrill of the self-driving car. The way the article is written really makes the reader optimistic about the future of self-driving cars.

The author makes some very logical connections. He says that self-driving cars may not be too far out in the future. He makes this conclusion by telling the reader about several companies and universities that are researching a way to make cars autonomous. He also says that there is a hesitation to making cars 100% autonomous because of reliability issues with computers. He says that there is a push to make the computer override-able by humans in case of a malfunction. He also states that fully autonomous cars are only legal in three states thus-far, indicating that there is still many hoops to jump through with the law. The author ends his article by saying that the ultimate goal of the autonomous car is to make driving safer, which ties back to my first blog where I say that safety is the number one concern of engineers.

Impact on Us

The impact that this new technology will hopefully be safer transportation. That means you will not have to worry about bad drivers out there causing wrecks. Of course, even when the technology becomes available to the general public, it will take a long time to get people transitioned into owning an autonomous car. But in the long run, there will be less worry about drunk driving, texting while driving, and other things that impair a drivers' ability. This technology will have a positive impact and it is very interesting. I for one can't wait to see where this goes in the next ten years or so. By then, hopefully there will be autonomous cars everywhere, keeping the roads safer.

References

Kosowatz, John. "Self-Driving Cars Speed Ahead."SelfDriving Cars Speed Ahead. ASME, Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.