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Year 2040

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers may not be a familiar name to the average driver, but what they are predicting is something that a lot of people may support. Researchers with the institute say that driver’s licenses won’t even be necessary by the year 2040. The reason is that they think autonomous cars will replace human drivers capable of some serious human error.

In fact, approximately 90 percent of all car accidents are caused by human error. In the year 2010 in the United States alone 32,885 people lost their lives in an automobile accident. Researchers and manufacturers of the autonomous cars such as Volvo and Google think the automated robot is the answer to the problem.

While driving, individuals are required to analyze their surroundings, gathering the data and making decisions. When something unexpected occurs, they are required to do this in a millisecond — something that researchers say shouldn’t be left to the human species. Computers, they say are the answer.

One psychologist said that it is not just the decision-making analysis that causes problems. Dr. Graham Hole has published on the topic of the psychology of driving, and he said that human pride is a problem too. “Most drivers think they are better than average drivers,” he said. While many admit that texting while driving or any other distraction is dangerous, they believe that they are one of the few who can do it successfully. You don’t really need to see the statistics to understand that the “infallible mindset” is dangerous too.

Even though humans make errors — a lot of them — others say turning to machines capable of glitches or malfunction isn’t the answer either. What do you think?

Source: BBC, “Will driverless cars mean computer crashes?” Alex Hudson, Oct. 1, 2012

Could automated cars be the answer for the future? Maybe, but we live in the present and our firm helps those injured in a severe car accident in New Jersey get the compensation that they need now.