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We’re not ready for driverless cars

ne of those “self-driving” cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Ariz., this past Sunday.

She was crossing the street with her bike when she was struck by the vehicle, which was traveling at about 40 miles per hour.

Police said the vehicle, with a human in the driver’s seat but reportedly not operating the controls, did not brake.

Uber, which had recently started using the driverless car in a nationwide test, reacted by pulling all of its autonomous vehicles off the streets after the accident.

Uber later said some sort of key operation related to the car’s guidance system had been turned off.

Some commentators argued the fatality would set self-driving cars and trucks back years.

It should.

We’re not ready for driverless cars.

Do you want them passing you on a road?

Sorry to take the glass-half-empty approach, but let’s face it: Sunday’s accident showed the technology that has been so highly touted by Uber and technology companies is a failure.

Oh, more research and development should take place.

But America is not ready, and the technology is not capable at this point.

Technology will march on, but let’s be real: Driverless cars pose too many risks to innocent people.

Safety must be guaranteed with driverless cars.

But it cannot be, can it?

Why do we constantly want to rely on technology to our own detriment? Why do we insist that technology do more of what humans do?

Oh, that’s right, technology makes less work for humans. Yeah… that’s just what we need.

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