Self-driving cars are becoming a new part of technology and the future. They may be cool and functional but are they safe? Self-driving cars can be dangerous. 

There have been many people who have died due to self-driving car accidents. For example, a Tesla model crashed into the back of a cleaning vehicle in January of 2016. The driver, 23-year-old Gao Yaning, was killed. Some accidents though are claimed to be the fault of the driver not looking at the road. Even though the cars drive themselves, the brakes and other functions can still be used by the driver. Some might not be aware of this. They might get into the car fully expecting the self-driving car to be 100% reliable. There are a few cases where the accident is the cars fault. In February of 2016, a Google self-driving Lexus SUV was merging into traffic and hit the side of a bus, with the car suffering damage. 

Statistics state that self-driving cars could save 40,000 lives from texting and driving or drunk driving. This does seem like a good idea to have these cars for people in these cases but there could still be errors in the driving, whether that is the fault of the driver or the car itself. A person who is under the influence or busy looking at their cell phone would not be able to react in time to stop a crash. That would be one fault in this solution. 

The jobs of Uber and Lyft drivers or taxi drivers would be reduced. For example, drunk partiers would not need to call an Uber, their self-driving car could just drive them home. These jobs might not completely disappear since not everyone can afford a car, but these forms of transportation would not be used as much. 

There are also self-summoning cars. Tesla has cars that allow you to summon your car from the parking lot to the driver as long as the car is within their line of sight. If you parked far away from wherever you are, you no longer need to walk all the way to your car. This sounds easier, but again could also cause problems. It could drive away, it could crash and since there is no one in the car there would be no one to prevent this from happening. 

Self-driving cars are the future and do make driving easier, but it’s important to think about the problems that could occur when choosing this mode of transportation.

Photo from Guillaume Vachey via Flickr