Kramer’s Korner: Driverless Vehicles In Texas? I’m Out.

I understand accidents happen all the time on the roadways. Some are due to unforeseen circumstances like a tire blowing out or car issue, some are simply due to negligence and a driver not paying attention, and yes, people trying to hit the gas to beat the yellow light.

Taking people out of the drivers seat SOUNDS like a good idea, but is it really a better idea to put driving in the hands of sensors and other automated things?

I only pose the question because it seems that automated driving is starting to become more of a thing, and the technology is starting to improve...a bit. Texas doesn't seem to be shying away from the concept, I mean Elon is building a ridiculous plant for Tesla in Austin as we speak.

So let's get this part out of the way...how do they work? Well, the cars have cameras, radar, and lidar. What's lidar? It's a fancy name for light detection and ranging. How do they know where you go? Well that would be GPS, the same way you and I find out where we're going.

Ok, we've got that out of the way.

Now I don't know about you, but I am NOT trusting those particular things to drive my butt around town. I'm not a good passenger in the first place, but I can't say something to my computer-driven car and expect it to react the way a person can.

The car isn't going to talk back to me, and it sure isn't going to listen to me. It's got a mind of its own, and no ears. It's basically like getting on a carnival ride and hoping nothing goes wrong with it.

I mean, these things have to be prone to getting in accidents right? Austin has kind of led the way in Texas when it comes to embracing these cars. That's not exactly a surprise. However, they have reported numerous accidents involving these driverless cars, and it's kind of ugly the reports on them.

There is a rideshare service called 'Cruise', and it's all automated driver cars. One of them got in an accident, and because there was nothing to tell the car it had been in that accident, it just rolled away from the scene of the crash.

Another incident was a near-miss. Emergency vehicles were racing down the street and the automated car, because remember, it doesn't have ears, had no idea they were coming. Two of these vehicles pulled out right in front of the emergency vehicles travelling at a high rate of speed.

If not for actual people in those vehicles, we could've had a complete catastrophe on our hands.

I don't know about you, but you won't find me anywhere near one of these vehicles. Not now, not ever.