We have come to a point where self driving cars are slowly integrating themselves in our everyday fabric of life. The process is slow, yet steady. Some will even say it’s inevitable. Whatever one’s perception might be, the self-reliant, intelligent machines are coming. This is perhaps best evident in the transportation industry, namely on our roads and highways.
A self driving car has been a dream, a concept for many years, long before artificial intelligence was present. The origins go all the way back to the 1920s, but it was really in the 1980s that the technology significantly advanced with the widespread emergence of computers. Artificial intelligence only sped up the whole process. Nowadays, almost every car manufacturer has some form of a self-driving car in its plans, be it a concept or a work in progress or a fully autonomous vehicle ready for road driving.
Uncertainty and fear of self driving cars
There are many layers of this technological advancement, but we are focused on one, with good reason: Jobs. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what artificial intelligence will bring in the future regarding employment. There are even more questions about self driving cars and jobs. Fear of losing jobs and extinguishing careers, turning man obsolete and redundant.
These fears are based on the rapid technological advancement we are witnessing with our own eyes. Already, we have driverless cars that successfully navigate around obstacles in real-time traffic. The sight of these autonomous machines driving around without any human dependency instigates a profound sense of dread among the group the people it might hurt the most. Basically, that’s anyone who works behind the steering wheel for a living. These primarily include taxi drivers, truck drivers and their families and friends who depend on them and care for them.
Anticipating future outcomes for drivers
We could talk for hours about the well-known benefits of a smart, self-driving car. Better environmental outcome through traffic and fuel efficiency, improved road safety and an increased leisure time are just some of the finer points of future driverless cars. However, as with any story, that’s just one side of it. There are many questions and issues regarding the operation of autonomous vehicles. How would it react to certain types of weather if, for instance, a heavy snowfall interfered with its sensors? The entire road infrastructure would need a major overhaul to adjust to driverless vehicles. Then, there’s the whole issue of both safety and privacy as criminals might hack into the vehicle’s software and thus control it or affect it in any way they want.
These are all legitimate concerns with one common factor – the computer. All these issues are due to its understanding (or lack thereof) of the environment around it. A computer is a tangible, material thing that can be worked on. A possible malfunction, even a minor glitch in the system, could wreak havoc on the road and cause various accidents. However, it can be fixed or replaced with a new, better one.
Humans, on the other hand, cannot. At least, not in that sense. Once an autonomous vehicle takes over, the truck driver that fared those all-too-familiar routes is gone. There’s nothing for him there anymore. We can teach a machine to recognize road signs, for example, but we cannot outperform it once it levels with us.
What self driving car jobs will there be?
While such eventualities paint a grim and cruel picture of the future, the good news is it’s still a long way off. We are much further away than we think, even if fixing or improving a software problem seems like a simple process. Automakers are still learning how to build autonomous cars. There are different ideas coming from different companies. The number of strategic partnerships between car manufacturers and tech companies is constantly growing, combining the old established industry with new disruptive ideas.
However, it seems the biggest obstacle is regulation. Transport by self-driving cars is still strictly prohibited, especially in metropolitan areas with dense population. Legal handling of the situation goes far beyond rather straightforward solutions of fixing, improving or replacing a machine. Perhaps the strongest adversary of driverless future is our ethical understanding of the nature of things. This is something that a machine might not understand and struggle on how to deal with. One occurring example is the “lesser of two evils” principle. Should the vehicle always avoid animals on the road at any cost to protect the safety of its passengers? Or, the more difficult one – should it choose between swerving off a road and killing everybody in the vehicle or keep going and plow into a larger group of people?
These are just some of the questions that present a challenge to lawmakers to create a policy that will provide safe deployment of autonomous vehicles. And this is without any mention of the cost of these vehicles, which are currently very expensive. For instance, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) recently announced it will privately manufacture an entire suite of sensors for Waymo, its self-driving car. The company managed to reduce the price of lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor to $7,500 with in-house production. Naturally, the prices will continue to decrease as the technology scales, but the amount does offer a good glimpse into the current state of affairs.
Opportunities for drivers displaced by self driving cars
Even when the authorities sort the legal stuff out some day (it’s inevitable that they will due to immense lobbying), there is still reason for optimism. The bottom line is that artificial intelligence needs human control. That need for human monitoring opens up new opportunities in terms of jobs and careers. In fact, some companies have already begun to do so. Tesla Motors, the pioneer of a modern advanced car, especially in the driver-assist features department, already has a program that offers registered apprenticeships to train veterans for tech jobs. Amazon has recently joined the fold as well, adding to the growing number of companies with such programs.
So far, Tesla’s program only applies to veterans, but the wide adoption of driverless vehicles will create jobs which do not exist at the moment. Companies will need personnel to overlook fleets of self-driving cars and closely monitor them. Those already familiar with the internal proceedings of such actions will have an easier way of transitioning to new positions since their previous work experience will play a significant role.
Closing words
We are living in the age of autonomy and slowly witnessing how that change is turning into action. 2017 will be the year with a multitude of public demonstrations of self-driving cars from various newcomers. But, even if that technology seems quite capable and ready for deployment, it won’t be adopted for quite some time. There are many concerns and issues to address, while automakers try to lower the cost of the still-new technology.
Self-driving cars are approaching reality with each passing day. They are constantly evolving their capabilities and features. Even when they reach full autonomy, there will still be a need for human guidance and monitoring. This need will partly cancel the replacement of humans as drivers by opening new jobs and positions closely related to the industry. Companies will want to use the knowledge and the previous experience through further training programs so things will not be that bad. The future holds many challenges and there will be enough time and means to prepare for them.