Driverless vehicles are on their way

Driverless vehicles? Years ago this would have seemed very futuristic to have vehicles that can indeed drive themselves. However it is now becoming reality. Google and Tesla are dominating at present but it appears that Samsung are now in the race with an $8bn purchase! Pocket change eh? Being a fan of technology you may think that I would be totally up for this type of advancement. However I have reservations that I think that most of us agree with. 1. Security We have heard how successful hackers can be recently and that they can strike even the most secure of establishments, FBI, NASA, CIA and ermmm Hilary Clinton? With a driverless vehicle there will be millions of lines of code written in to enable it to function all of which has to work all of the time, every time in real-time. Now without going into too much detail how code is written all code that is written can have bugs. In some cases bugs can be harmless, much like the real world, however other bugs can be deadly whilst others can just leave you weak. It is the latter point of weakness that is the concern with security. Should a bug be within code that gives weakness to a key piece of security protecting external access there is always the risk that hackers can try to exploit this. I see hackers as two sets of people 1) mischievous type who may hack the vehicle who may set the horn to honk whilst indicating left or 2) evil hacker who may disable your braking system when you reach 60mph. Hacker 1 is generally ok to deal with but hacker 2 is going to make you suffer badly. 2. Your life is not in your hands So several million lines of code does not write itself. There are large teams of software developers of whom are which are very smart individuals however as humans we make mistakes. There are however multiple checks that are put in place to help avoid mistakes creeping in, again a bug. It was not all that long ago where Telsa unfortunately had one of their customers die in an accident where the auto pilot software did not recognise a white truck against a bright white back ground. Was this a bug? It is difficult to categorise this as a bug but it highlights the difficulty that the software engineers face when trying to cover all eventualities. I am sure as time moves on the concerns about security shall reduce to a point that it will be practically impossible to hack a vehicle. Also it will come about that ALL possible sequences will be coded so no matter what happens the software will take the best and course of action. The problem with the last part I feel is extremely difficult to solve, for example, how do you code a car to take the choice of colliding with say a group of pedestrians to avoid injury to the driver? As a human this itself will be a difficult choice to make however if you had to make this choice at least you know you made it. Also it goes without saying that we all see every day people making crazy choices when driving to which there appears to be no thought process at all. To me for now, I am happy with having to make my decision on which way my car will turn.

Using mobile phones or devices when driving

The use of mobile phones in vehicles has come to the forefront of our minds again with the unnecessary deaths of four people. On the 10th August 2016. HGV driver Tomasz Kroker drove his vehicle into the poor family's car at 50mph whilst search music on his mobile phone. Video footage that has has been released shows the terrfiying moment when Tomasz Kroker came to relalise that he was about to plough into stationary traffic. Initially Mr Kroker claimed that his brakes on his vehicle failed. In reality he had driven his lorry for almost 1km without paying any attention to the road in front of him. The use of using a mobile device has been illegal for sometime now which currently carries a penalty of 3 points on your licence and a £100 fine. This for most of us is more than enough to make us steer clear of using a phone whilst being the driver of a vehicle but still the a large majority of people are still flauting the law. The case above demonstrates just how deadly using a mobile device can be. It is not without any surprise that the penalties for using a mobile phone behind the wheel are currently being reviewed which could mean harsher penalties for those caught. Alas the regardless of what laws are past they will not bring the loved ones that have been tragically taken before their time. Many years ago I got into a pretty heated argument with a sales director with regards to the use of a mobile phone. It all started because of a 3 hour journey to and from our main client. So 6 hours spent driving, which is normal for some drivers, was enough to contend with however the clash came when I was back in the office and was asked how many calls I had made whilst driving. I said none as I was driving. To my astonishment he released a torrent of rage as he believed I had wasted 6 hours without calling and speaking to other clients! Now I am sure that many of employees have felt pressured, like I was, into making and taking calls whilst driving however the response should be the same in that you should not do it. How did I counter it? 1. Remind the individual that that using a mobile phone is an offence whilst driving, note a hands-free kit whilst may be potentially acceptable can be used against you if you are involved in an accident and if proven you were distracted your liable to be dealt with in the same manner as if you had been holding the phone. 2. The directors of a company are responsible for their employees health and safety. By being demanded that you take or make calls whilst driving you are not only automatically committing offence and also putting yourself at risk of an accident. The above worked for me and needless to say the tone of the conversation changed in my favour. In the world we are today there are pressures to be in contact all the time, Facebook, Snapchat, Whatssapp, Skype.....the list goes on. However all of these are really meant for when you are not in control of a vehicle that is ultimatley a piloted killing machine in the wrong hands. In summary it is best to leave the mobile off as it is the safest way.