Ever since the dawn of the age of automobiles, people have imagined about autonomous, or self-driving, cars. Automobile manufacturers and tech companies have tried to bring the vision of self-driving cars to reality. They claimed that accidents will become a thing of the past, and we will be able to jam out to our favorite music, eat a sandwich�, catch a Jigglypuff, sleep through traffic or read a book without worrying. And with unprecedented advancements in automotive computers and technology in the past 20 years, it seems self-driving cars are closer to reality than they have ever been; nearly all major automotive companies now offer some form of automatized safety features in their cars in the form of adaptive cruise control, active lane-keeping assist and other brilliant technologies. Many people actually believe that driving will disappear into pages of h�istory in our generation since Audi can make a car sprint around a racetrack by itself. Self-driving cars definitely have been on the right track and have plenty of potential to be something pivotal in history of human transportation, but there are noticeable flaws that still stop me from welcoming them with open arms.

The biggest selling point of autonomous cars is probably safety, as human error and (thank heavens) stupid drivers will be eliminated. However, Jeremy Clarkson, the former host of the world’s biggest� car showTop Gear, presented an intriguing perspective; he claimed that there will be real-world variables that result in unpreventable crashes, and in those types of situations, computer-driven cars will calculate how much collateral damage will result from all possible scenarios and will even choose to kill its own occupants should it determine that that is the least destructive course of action, so while autonomous cars can significantly reduce the number of car crashes, it will not eliminate them completely.

This brings me to the second thought: the complete removal of human control. Google's self-driving car prototypes don't have pedals or a steering wheel, and it doesn't take much thinking to see that completely eliminating human input and leaving everything to a computer can be a dangerous idea. Computers experience bugs and glitches no matter who makes it or how powerful it is. Apple’s iTunes on Windows was a buggy piece of sh*t until recent years and smartphones get sluggish and buggy after just couple of years. Then as cars begin to fuse more and more with computers, there are hackers to worry about; hackers now have the ability to shut off your car in the middle of the road if they so desired. When both FBI and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are warning about the risk of car hacking, giving a computer complete control over a car’s steering system and gas pedal without any backup plan is not the smartest move. Humans might get tired behind the wheel and get distracted while behind the wheel, but at least our brains are not prone to hackers and glitches.

The recent Tesla crashes and controversy surrounding the company's Autopilot feature also reminded drivers just how vital human involvement still is in driving. The Autopilot feature in new Tesla cars are a combination of aforementioned adaptive cruise control technology and active lane-keeping assist and allows Teslas to virtually drive themselves on the highways. It’s arguably the closest thing we can get to an autonomous vehicle, and while Tesla cautions that the program is still in its beta stage, that hasn’t stopped people from doing some crazy things. People trust the system, and believed it was okay to leave everything to the car. When his Tesla Model S sedan collided with a tractor-trailer, its 40 year-old driver was allegedly watching Harry Potter on a DVD player. Since then, two more Teslas have reported to crash while their Autopilot feature was engaged, sparking a debate whether Tesla’s Autopilot system is flawed or whether the drivers should’ve paid attention to the road as Tesla warned its customers.

Technology in cars have come such a long way in such a short time, and will continue to advance. That’s a good thing, because cars have only gotten safer, cleaner, faster and more convenient. But I just can’t see fully autonomous cars being the revolution that some people say they will be, or at least not in the foreseeable future. Computers might have evolved far enough to beat humans on an old board game, but in a task such as driving where split-second decision making and quick physical coordination are absolutely critical, computers are still far off from human consistency and accuracy. Eating lunch during commutes or sleeping through traffic sounds neat, but for now, I will take the car with a steering wheel and a pedal in it, thank you very much. Driving isn’t that difficult anyway, if you stop being lazy and pay attention.