Car Shenanigans With TheGifMan #1 : Self Driving Cars

So, this is a new article series that I am going to be starting. I’ve wanted to do this for a while now and I’m going to make it a weekly thing. Today I am going to be talking about “self-driving cars”.

So, the future of cars is now inching closer, “self-driving cars”, which were only seen in science fiction movies and novels are now on the streets. But, I personally think that people do not need a car that drives it self. Whenever I see one of these things pop up on CNN and tech blogs, I ask myself, “What’s the point?”” Are people just getting that lazy?” Now, I understand that this is “ground-breaking” technology for some people, but to me it’s a waste of resources and money.

The “self-driving” car is not a recent invention, Google tested their version of the self-driving car back in 2011. But honestly, if you look at the thing that they created, I can assure everyone that nobody was going to buy their vehicle.

If you rolled up to your school parking lot in this thing, you would not look very cool. If I was forced to “drive” (I put it quotation marks because you really don’t drive the thing.) I would park it at least 5 miles from the school, and walk the rest of the way.

I guess they thought so too because they modified a Prius, with the self-driving technology to do their Google Maps street view thing. Which is putting it to good use, I wouldn’t expected anyone to just drive around the entire world, the self- driving thing is much more efficient.

Audi also did their own thing with the “self-driving” car thing as well, in 2015 they reported an autonomous version of their RS-7.

This autonomous beast reportedly had 560HP and went around a 2.5 mile track in 2 minutes and 1 second. Which might be cool for other people, but for me it’s absolutely absurd. Making a car that is performance oriented autonomous is unnecessary. The whole point of a performance oriented vehicle is for someone to DRIVE it, not just sit there while it drives itself. You don’t get the thrill of actually controlling and engaging with the car, sure you’ll probably get better lap times with a computer controlled vehicle, but what kind of race would you want to see? A perfect race where the cars do the same thing every lap, or a race with variety? I think we all know the answer to that question.

And now, it brings us to Tesla.

Tesla, if I am not mistaken, is the first company to make a self driving car available to consumers. On, October 14, 2015, Tesla introduced “Autopilot” which made recent models of the Model S and Model X SUVs, kind of autonomous. This feature was also in a Carthrottle video, where Alex test out the “Autopilot” mode of the Model S and he seemed very nervous sitting in a car that was driving itself. :)

Now, obviously, the system was flawed a little bit at the time, but as Alex stated in the video, “the autonomous system is getting more and more clever everyday,” which is a good thing. Also, what Tesla is trying to do is a good thing as well, Alex explained in the video that Tesla is trying to eliminate road fatigue and accidents. But, I have some problems with this as well. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motor, is a genious. He will be remembered for generations for revolutionizing many things in the sciences and technology. But, Mr. Musk, you’ve made an error sir. Elon Musk stated that people using the “Autopilot” should keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times just in case.

SO, WHAT’S THE POINT? If you have your hands on the steering wheel already, why not just steer it as well? Also, this system is used mostly on the highway, so you’re not steering that much anyways, at least in the US you’re not. The highways of the United States are pretty straight so very little steering is involved.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you’re looking forward to the next one

PS: This was my own personal opinion, if you read something you didn’t agree with, put them in the comment section!