Implications Behind Self-Driving Cars In-Class Essay

This article details the how self-driving cars work with respect to artificial intelligence and data science. As society transitions to self-driving cars, it is important to assess the implications behind such technological innovation. One obvious negative implication is the amount of the jobs that will be displaced as a result. Given that self-driving cars no longer need a “driver”, the article states that millions of truckers, cabbies, and other drivers will be displaced by 2045. Because driving a vehicle requires little to no “education”, it is difficult for those out of work to find new job, as many jobs require more skillsets than the ability to drive. One potential solution is that those displaced could directly work in the self-driving car industry, whether it in labor work in the manufacturing process or some other sort of low skillset job. Aside from the displacement of drivers and truckers, other jobs that might also get displaced include DMV employees, behind-the-wheel companies, and car insurance companies because all these industries profit from human driving. One positive implication is the decrease in the number of accidents and death that will occur. Right now, because humans are the drivers of cars, the number of global accidents and death are substantial. However, as society begins to implement self-driving technology, the number of accidents and deaths will lower because self-driving cars are only programed to know the correct way to drive, making this technology error-free. However, hacking these systems are very much possible so it is important for companies to take consequences like these into consideration. As far as moral and ethical implications go, if car crashes were to occur, there would be no way to determine who is exactly liable for these crashes. Liability issues would then lead to other financial issues that would be unideal.