学进去

Have you ever seen a car without a driver? It sounds crazy, but these computer —driven driverless cars will soon be filling roads near you. Companies like Google and Tesla have been designing and testing these cars, and they just need to see if they value for money, work out insurance（保险）issues, and run final tests to check if they can run alongside human driven cars on the road.

So how do they work? The cars have sensors(应器）all around which can find other cars and objects in the road. Sensors on the wheels also help when parking, so the cars know how far it is from the outside of the road or other parked cars. Road signs are read by by cameras, and satellite navigation systems are used, so the cars know how to get where you want to go. All you have to do is type in the address! Finally, a central computer system takes in all the information that it receives from the sensors and cameras and works out when to speed up, stop, and turn.

Sound like your idea of heaven（天堂）? Sitting back, looking out of the windows and even watching a film or reading a book while “driving” would be possible with this new technology. You wouldn’t have to worry about remembering directions to where you are going. In addition, computers would be better drivers than humans —they would obey the speed limit and have quicker action times when in dangerous situations. However, there are many disadvantages of driverless cars. Computers would have difficulties making ethical（道德的）decisions: if a child ran into the road, would the computer choose to hit the child or change the direction suddenly and potentially kill the car’s passengers? Moreover, I personally find driving fun —I’d miss driving a car myself. There would also be many other decisions to be made —should children, or drunk people, be allowed in a driverless car by themselves? Or would there need to be a person with a driving license in the car at all times?

Although being driven around by a machine would perhaps mean that no one needs a driving license, and saving money for everyone, many people would be put out of a job when driverless cars appear. Bus, taxi and train drivers as well as driving instructors would be made unnecessary. I’m not certain if I’d want a driverless car —but it’s only a matter of time before they’ll become more affordable and common on our roads.