Here is an interesting question, who makes more mistakes, a person or a computer? The easy answer is a person, but it also depends on who programs the computer. A computer is only as good as the person who programed it. Another question: What is one of (stressing one of) the most dangerous activities most everyone partakes in on a daily basis? Driving. So, if a person programs a computer car, we could reasonably decrease the danger of one of the most dangerous activities of our daily lives.
I first heard about this when I was in middle school, more than a decade ago, and was fascinated. A car that does not need a driver. Through various sensors it knows it’s location in respect to lanes, destination and other vehicles. It can check it’s own blindspot, know when it’s turn is, and know which side of the road it’s destination is. People can continue to eat, text, ect, while driving.
This will be great for science classes, discussing the technology used and how it works. There are sensors, radars and infrared cameras everywhere, and those silly little ideas such as light waves can be brought into context (we see that we are wearing brown shoes, what’s it matter how we see they are brown!). These technologies can be used in other way, brainstorm how they can be used to save lives, or just to make life easier. How would your students use this technology. Show them the movie Wall-E, in which technology has developed to the point that people no longer have to walk around, or even look at each other to talk to each other. Is this technology a good thing? It is allowing us to be lazier. It is allowing us, and thus making us feel as though we must do more in our daily lives. Are our lives really better with these driverless cars, and the next technology to come?
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