Autonomous Vehicles, Public Highways, and Myself

I would like to start off by saying that, generally, I am a proponent for the progression of scientific and technologica development. Science and technology has allowed humanity to explore areas of life and the universe around us in ways that we haven’t ever been able to before. A great majority of the developments that have come from this mindest of continuous progress have had the ability to benefit human society. Where I take issue with that growth mindest is when the ethical questions of the technology or science in question is beset with ethical concerns, and rather those concerns be explored or accounted for, they are ignored.

There is always a cost for progress. It is an unavoidable constant given what humans are capable of at this given moment, as we haven’t quite developed the ability to create something from nothing. When the cost of progress demands human life, in the case of the deaths that have resulted from the testing of autonomous vehicles, it seems imperative for me that we take a step back and figure out how to re-negotiate that payment.

Before exploring the ethical concerns behind autonomous vehicles deeper, my thoughts on the matter were so long as its not costing human life, the benefit that AVs will bring will eventuall offset all other costs in the process. It wasn’t until I listened to the TED talk by Nico Larco that I realized that the implications of AVs goes beyond the minimization of the cost of human life.

To summarize Nico’s talk, Nico explains to the audience that autonomous vehicles will have a ripple effect through modern society, as the technology will influence things such as urban sprawl, city planning, land prices, and urban architecture. While Nico does bring up the unfortunate accidents that have resulted from AV testing on public roads, in my mind the big take away from his talk is that AVs will have such a profound impact on society that we are in no way prepared for. After listening to Nico speak, thinking through what he spoke about, and doing my own research, I believe that when its all said and done AVs will have, at least, the same monumental impact on society that the internet had.

Moving forward, it seems incredibly important to heed the words of Nico and people like him to better prepare human society to the impact that these devices are going to have on our world. By looking back on the uncertain times during our history where society has been profoundly moved in a certain direction due to the advent of a technology. Human life is always going to be the most valuable resource, and I don’t see that changing; however, I believe focusing solely on how to minimize that cost while ignoring the glaring future impacts will only leave our future selves wishing that we had prepared for AVs much more than we had in the past.