Automation is certainly an idea of the future. Early on,inventors have wanted to make life easier for the average Joe. We have allready come so far with automobiles themselves. Making them safer, stronger, faster, more reliable. But now it seems like that just wasn't enough. Now, we are close to the "next big step" in the automoblie industry: driverless cars.

We have been striving to invent automated cars for awhile now. In the 1950's, General Motors had taken a crack at automated cars. The projetwas scraped becaus ethe modifications to the roads were too expensive. In the 1980's, cars had spped sensors installed for the antilock brakes. So really, i has been a progression of innovation to get to where we are. But smart cars have always been known to have some sort of flaw.

To me, the smart car is a bad idea. It's innovation but not in a good way. These new brands of cars will make drivers lazy and even more reckless on te road than they were allready.

The first issue with the smart car is that it still requires a drivers attention. They have tried to counter this problem by installing cameras to watch the driver. The report also mentioned installing entertainment systems into the vehicle. This is an invitation to disaster. If your purpose is to keep the drivers attention, why would you want to install a distraction? A driverless car would'nt be very driverless if a driver was needed in an emergency.

Another issue is how this new technology would hit the industy. Based on the report, this is mostly just a Google project now. So let's say Google wanted to monopolize on their new line of automobiles. How many other car manufacturers could potentially lose buisness. The auto buisness is allready hurting from foreign competion, so why do we have to take more jobs out by coming up with automated cars?

Automated cars are reliant on technology. So does any vehicle, but this one hangs heavy on it. What happens if your hardware shuts down? Would your average mechanic be able to fix a computer? No, they wouldn't. Anothernexample of where jobs would be lost. You couldn't go to your local repair shop anymoe, you'd have to have specialized workers look at your car for much more.

In short, smart cars are very expensive and uneccessary. If we still need a driver, your computer isn't a driverless car. If we do invest in smart cars, we will find even more jobs being taken over by specialists. Whats wrong with just taking a turn at the wheel?