Are driverless cars a good idea?

• Author: Bartel, Emily Duff
• Position: Debate

Driverless cars have left the realm of science fiction and are now hitting American roads. About three dozen companies in the U.S.--including automakers and tech companies--are working on self-driving cars. Waymo (a Google spinoff) has a fleet of 100 self-driving Chrysler minivans on California roads. Uber is testing about 100 driverless cars in both Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Tempe, Arizona. Ford has about 30 self-driving test vehicles on the roads in California, Michigan, and Arizona, and hopes to triple that number by the end of this year.

But there have been setbacks: In March, Uber briefly suspended its program after a self-driving car crashed in Tempe. (No one was injured.) Advocates say autonomous vehicles will make roads safer, but critics say the technology isn't yet ready for prime time.

YES

Self-driving technology has the potential to save millions of lives and improve quality of life for people around the world.

Each year, 1.3 million people die worldwide in car accidents. Ninety-four percent of those crashes are due to human error. This is a tragedy that innovation can help solve. Computers are learning to perceive better, calculate faster, and react earlier than a human driving a car. As soon as we can demonstrate to safety agencies that a computerized car can drive more safely than a person, self-driving vehicles should be put on our roads in large numbers and without delay.

Self-driving cars will also accelerate another trend we're already seeing: the shift toward more ride sharing. Self-driving cars are more efficient for ride sharing because they don't need lunch breaks and a computer can integrate routes faster than people.

In the U.S., 10 percent of Uber riders under 30 already say they've given up their cars or are no longer planning to buy a car. Those numbers will grow substantially as self-driving cars make ride sharing more efficient and therefore more popular.

A future in which more people are ride sharing has many other benefits. We'll need fewer cars overall, which will reduce road congestion and free up parking spaces in our cities. That will mean far less wasted time stuck in traffic and looking for parking. Furthermore, cities with fewer parking lots will have more room for new businesses, housing, and public places like parks and schools. Fewer cars on our roads also means a lot less gas burned and a lot less pollution coming out of tailpipes. That's good for the environment.

These many benefits are part...