ARS Technica has an interesting article looking at the effects of a cars being able to drive themselves (and you) in the future. The first page of the article goes into all of the benefits of having cars do the driving instead of humans: cars don’t fatigue, get drunk, get distracted, or require experience to become better at driving. All of which, the argument goes, will lead to less accidents and thus everyone will be much safer.

While this argument seems valid on its face, I am just too much of a skeptic to accept that having cars do the driving is in anyone’s best interest in the foreseeable future. The problem with technology and computer programs (and it would be a computer program piloting you around) is that they are only as good as the people who created or programmed them, and all programs and systems eventually crash. Just look at your personal computer - when was the last time it crash or froze? With your computer, the worst that happens is that you lose some data. If your car’s brain crashes when you expect it to be driving, then YOU crash too, possibly getting injured or worse. And what happens if you encounter something that the program doesn’t recognize or know how to handle? Experience is only good if it is actually programmed into the program. If it is not there, the program cannot think, and thus has no judgment at all about how to handle the situation.

While an interesting concept, I don’t see us relenquishing control of our cars to computers anytime soon.