I believe that the negative aspects of driverless cars outweigh the positive ones. There are too many complications and problems that are yet to be solved. Driverless cars are a very unique and interesting invention, but I am not in favor of the development of these cars. There is a vast number of improvements that still need to be made in order for these cars to function properly.

Driverless cars have too much technology involved that could easily malfunction and lead to several mishaps. Looking at paragraph 4 it states that,"Google's modified Toyota Prius uses position-estimating sensors on the left rear wheel, a rotating sensor on the roof, a video camera mounted near the rearview mirror, four automative radar sensors, a GPS receiver, and an inertial motion sensor." From this quote, you can already see how complex a driverless car needs to be in order to run efficiently. All of these gadgets have to installed and all of them are very necessary. According to the author in paragraph 4, it also claims, "The most important bit of technology in this system is the spinning sensor on the roof. Dubbed LIDAR, it uses laser beams to form a constantly updating 3-D model of the car's surroundings." If the LIDAR malfunctions, then the car has no information on its surroundings. It would be virtually impossible for a driverless car to work without the perfect execution of all these devices. I believe that there is too much room for error.

I also am against driverless cars because there is a lack of safety when a driver is not in control of a car. Many states agree with this and do not allow for driverless cars to occupy their roads. In paragraph 9 it explains how,"Presently, traffic laws are written with the assumption that the only safe car has a human driver in control at all times. As a result, in most states it is illegal to even test computer-driven cars." This quote tells you that the traffic laws of numerous states would need to be altered for driverless cars to be allowed. The majority of states believe that they are not safe and restrict their use. Traffic laws as well as liability laws would need to be redone in order to cover the safety. At the end of paragraph 9 it asks,"If technology fails and someone is injured, who is at fault-the driver of the manufacturer?" This directly correlates to a lack of safety and major complications. In case of an accident, the victim would not know who to blame and in the end would severely suffer. There are way too much obstacles that obstruct the safety of too many citizens with driverless cars.

Lastly, driverless cars are not fully capable of running independently. With this, you would need to figure out an effective way to alert your driver when their assistance is needed. If the driver could not be alerted, then this could lead to massive consequences. In paragraph 7 it states, "They can steer, accelerate, and brake themselves, but all are designed to notify the driver when the road ahead requires human skills, such as navigating through work zones and around accidents." This quote highlights the neccesity of getting the driver's attention. If in any case the driver was not able to be alerted, the repercussions would be severe.

In my opinion, driverless cars do not need to be developed. The science and technology involved is susceptible to malfunction and could result in many problems. There is a lack of safety when it comes to these cars and various states agree. Also, a driver could be clueless and not listen to the alerts given be the car when it was trying to gain their attention. This could lead to an accident or something even worse. For these reasons, I oppose the development of driverless cars. 