B1 – Intermediate
What will future cars look like? Can future vehicles prevent road accidents? Will it really be possible for a car to take us from point A to B without controlling it? Let’s discuss the Autonomous or driver-less cars of the future and find out more about it.
Listen to the podcast carefully and study the featured vocabulary words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-170105
Discussion Questions:
- Will self-driving cars be safer than human-controlled ones? Explain.
- Do you think that robot cars can handle life-or-death situations/decisions? Explain.
- Would you buy an autonomous car for yourself? Why or why not?
- What problems do you see with autonomous vehicles?
18 replies on “Autonomous Vehicles”
1. Will self-driving cars be safer than human-controlled ones? Explain.
I think that the self-driving cars will be safer than human-controlled ones because the human has only two eyes while these autonomous vehicles have a lot of sensors around the car which can capture image of all things happened around of it.
2. Do you think that robot cars can handle life-or-death situations/decisions? Explain.
I think that robots cars can handle the decisions of stopping the car when risk situations are happening because the sensors detect them.
3. Would you buy an autonomous car for yourself? Why or why not?
Yes, I would like to buy an autonomous car, but I would feel safer if everybody bought it and the roads only had robots cars.
4. What problems do you see with autonomous vehicles?
I don’t see any problem, maybe the cars companies need to convince us about the safety of these cars before we show interest about them.
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1. Will self-driving cars be safer than human-controlled ones?
It could be, I think it will be impossible for a self-driving car to avoid all accidents, but I am sure that the number of accidents compared to a car driven by a human will be significantly less.
2. Do you think that robot cars can handle life-or-death situations/decisions?
I think it is probable, but always under an ethical criterion given by a human through algorithms.
3. Would you buy one for yourself? Why/not?
Why not? But not at this time when technology must be improved.
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That’s a hard question. I think that has positive and negative points. Positive because it is more precise than the human eye and can calculate, but if it is necessary to improvise, it is worse.
There are more factors that could induced a human error, for example, talk with mobile, sleeping driving, drink alcohol, smoke, that’s with a self-driving does not exist and it’s safer.
I think robot cars can handle life or death situations but there is an emotional part that is missing, and it can be important in making decisions. I’m sure it’s better than human decisions.
Yes, I would try it. I think that if it goes on the market it is because it had a lot of proof and the percentage or risk is very little.
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In my opinion, self-driving cars can be as dangerous as human-controlled ones. I don’t believe unconditionally in artificial intelligence; as well as a human can take the decision of driving having got drunk before, technology can fail unexpectedly and provoke an accident.
However, danger is everywhere. I like the idea of existing self-driving cars, but only if they have an automatic speed that is not so fast. In fact, I would say I prefer them more than trust in humans. I would buy one for myself if I had the money.
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1. Will self-driving cars be safer than human-controlled ones?
Autonomous cars can be safer than human-driven cars because they have a recorded pattern of behavior based on traffic rules and analysis of the environment that they cannot ignore.
2. Do you think that robot cars can handle life-or-death situations/decisions?
I consider that in a limit situation, human control is better because there are factors such as improvisation, empathy or assessment of consequences that a robot with fixed rules will hardly be able to take into account in a risky situation.
3. Would you buy one for yourself? Why/not?
I would not buy an autonomous vehicle for myself. i have the misfortune to live in a time of transition in terms of new technology in cars. it is not yet clear where the future of cars is going. of course all driving assistance technologies are welcome, but always with me in control.
You did a great job sharing your thoughts on this topic.
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Keep up the good work!
Iagree with some car manifacturers when they say that it will take some years before we see full atonomous drive for many reasons: first of all for the security on the roads. People aren’t ready yet to be confident with this type of tecnology but also I think we have to consider the positive side like prevent accident due to tired drivers or drivers that have consumed drugs or alchool. Finally the second reason concern the governments and their traffic regulations, as also the insurance companies and liability regulations in case of accidents.
I think the cuestion is too generic. Nowadays with machine learning, that is the mechanism of improve hability and precision on newest machine, make posible for robots important things like drive a car, or driving drones and planes, or performing any surgery. However it is the human mind that decide because, developing that learning mechanism, are humans that decide wht decision thake and wath to do in case of life or death situations.
I would not buy one for myself because I like drive.
Good work on your answers! Practicing more and more can help prevent you from making the same mistakes. Just keep going with your writing exercise.
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1. I prefer a good driver. To drive is for human. It’s free. Maybe the self-driving are more safer than a driver but it’s no more safer than a good driver and their answer to a problems on the road.
2. I don’t know, maybe the decision programs are the started to the robots revolution.
3. No. I don’t have money to buy a car and if I have money I will drive. I like to drive. I like to feel free when I drive.
Keep up your writing practice to see further improvements in no time.
Here is one sentence you can write a bit better:
I’m a computer scientist and every day I see the mistakes we make. Anyway anything drives better than me, including a chimp.
The best option would be for a reverse driving test: the worst drivers are licensed for a autonomous car.
I think that the life-or-death situations are really difficult for humains too. The fact is a frecuent philosophic topic.
Porbably I never buy one because would be to expensive. Ada can learn to drive before.
The best option would be for a reverse driving test: the worst drivers are licensed for a [ sic ] autonomous car. — What an interesting idea!
One thing you can be a little mindful about is spelling. Take a look at how you can write some words properly:
Well done. Keep going!
Self-driving cars have the potential to be safer than human drivers in order to avoid human errors. Self-driving cars are still being testing. But vehicles driven by humans are using more and more technology and I thinK there are less accidents that in the past.
I hope that robot cars can handle life-or-death situations/decisions in the future but at this moment I am not sure.
Regarding the last question, I would not buy one at this time. I prefer to be in the driving seat, I have in control of a situation. I prefer a car with a lot of technology but not a robot.
Many thanks for answering our questions well. Keep practicing your writing skills using this method.
Make sure to use passive voice in this sentence: