Given our rapidly developing technology it is considered vehicles will be automated with only passengers onboarding them. From my point of view, I think the pros outweigh the cons, especially when we consider the safety and the convenience of such development.
Firstly, we need to address the safety of transportation. Road accidents are very common especially in the urban city where traffic is dense. Even though there can be multiple factors for accidents, most fatalities arise due to human error. For example, the US records a number of road accidents due to drunk driving. Automation of vehicles can help resolve the problem from human errors entirely as no one has to be present on the driving seat in the first place.
Secondly, automation can help provide convenience for people, especially those who have physical disabilities and/or of old age. As far as disability is concerned, this is a great unlock, especially when we see this from an economic perspective. There are 0.2% of the global population who are physically disabled, who cannot commute to work. Automated cars will make this accessible. Touching upon the aging population, people over the age of 80 for whom accessibility to medicare and medication is crucial, the feature of driverless vehicles will come in handy.
Opponents think there is an issue of psychological safety and trust as far as automation is concerned. But we are living in an age of rapid technological advancement where such issues have been widely negated as we embraced it in our daily lives.
Safety and convenience are two major concerns that trump any other disadvantages. While it’s important to preserve human lives over errors, the next best thing is to provide opportunity to the disabled and old aged through the convenience of automated vehicles.