Driverless cars are revolutionizing the auto industry. This idea behind this futuristic technology is to allow the user to relax and not be bothered by the worries of the road. While this idea sounds nice in concept, when put into reality it just becomes illogical. It is for this reason that unless groundbreaking technology is discovered that can make driverless cars safe and practical, people should just continue to drive cars themselves.

One of the specific faults of driverless cars is the fact that they are not truly driverless. This is made evident when the author states that "In fact, none of the cars developed so far are completely driverless. This means the human driver must remain alert and be ready to take over when the situation requires" (7). The whole purpose of developing computurized cars is so that no attention is required by the humans within the cars. If the human still has to be "alert" and ready to drive, then the entire point of having these automated cars is negated. The attention required by a human takes away from the ability to relax and not worry about the road. To that point, if the operator of the vehicle is not able to fully relax, he/she would much rather be solely operating the vehicle for the strict purpose of keeping occupied. If they cannot risk leaving the car alone to occupy themselves with other things, than the entire purpose of the driverless car has been defeated.

Another factor that argues against driverless cars is the issue of safety. While some may argue that the automation of the car takes away the factor of human error, this puts too much trust in the computers. While tested, and proven safe, it is still worrysome to think about the fact that the operator's life is solely in the driving skill of the computer that is driving the car. It is unrealistic to put this much trust into a computer preforming a predominantly human activity. Human knowlege, reactions, and skill are all key attributes in driving, which is why taking these attributes away may turn out to be dangerous. This is the reason that "...in most states it is illegal even to test computer-driven cars" (9). Things are not just made illegal without ample reason to do so. Clearly the United States government, the most powerful government in the world believes that there is too much risk involved in testilng, nonetheless driving these furutistic automobiles.

This idea of driverless cars follows the recent social trend of laziness. As a species we are beginning to rely more and more on computers to complete simple tasks that we are more than capable of completing ourselves. There is a point where technology is taken too far and that is the point where it has an opportunity to impact our safety. This is that point.      