Should A Day Come Where Manually Driven Cars Are Banned?

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Should a Day Come Where Manually Driven Cars Are Banned From the Road?
Introduction
With new technology comes great expectations. The notion has not been different with the advent of autonomous cars that are deemed to become prevalent in the future. Today, there is a considerable number of vehicles on the roads. The number of accidents and injuries on the streets is overwhelming, with the U.S. reporting over 4 million severe injuries in 2015. The idea of banning manually driven cars in the future elicits mixed reactions from different corners; while one side supports the accrued benefits of self-driving cars, the other stresses on the need to maintain the human experience, which has been enjoyed over the years. The study provides an argumentative assessment of the issue of banning human drivers to embrace the selfless driving technology.
Background of issue
In a recent report on policy guidelines by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the development and regulation of self-driving vehicles occur as an essential alternative (Dorf,). The guidelines are the product of collaborations with other sector players and having a preliminary status; it becomes accurate to refer to the document as a proposal for public policy.
The announcement of the guidelines is a critical indication that dominant application of self-driving cars on the roads will be a reality shortly. Currently, efforts by government regulators direct attention to partnerships with other industry leaders to anticipate and address problems, thus allowing the introduction and sale of the self-driving cars (Dorf). The phase will involve a transition to new driverless cars share the road with manually driven cars.
Since there are many human-operated vehicles on the road compared to computer-managed ones, the idea of autonomous vehicles in place of human drivers seems unattainable. Nonetheless, companies like Google, Tesla and Uber continue to develop and test driverless vehicles, while focusing on safe technology (Dorf,). The use of self-driving cars as opposed to human-driven cars to realize the more significant superiority in safety remains a big question.
Here, the critical question is: Should individuals interested in driving for themselves allowed to operate the autonomous cars in the future? This question will require a critical response from the state regulators, as well as other major industry participants (Sorrel). It is not too early to start the discussion on working towards banning human drivers on the roads.
Driving should be made illegal given the availability of new technology to prevent adverse risks of accidents and even deaths. More than 1.2 million individual passes on people each year from car accidents (Samit). While the use of protective tools in vehicles, such as airbags, seatbelts and pressure monitoring systems, the number of fatalities shows a decline. However, addressing the problem of human error continues to present a massive challenge for the automotive makers. Historically, the use of automated vehicles date back to the 1920s period, with significant advancement in the 1950s. The introduction of computers in the 80’s marked the beginning of possible automation of cars (Samit).
Argumentative analysis
Trading off the additional safety that a human-driving ban would achieve relative to the actual and perceived benefits derived from driving own cars becomes a matter of concern. The benefits of banning human-driven vehicles far outweigh the associated costs (Sorrel).
Opposing ideas
Some individual might prefer driving themselves for entertainment. Others might want to drive their vehicles as a form of seeking thrill. Even today, people owning antique vehicles still patrol the roads as a form of adventure (Dorf). In others’ view, driving oneself appears and feels safer, with expert and experienced drivers standing at a better position compared to the robotic cars. The interest in driving own cars is also motivated by the new technology. Similar anxieties about self-driving cars would require allowing human driving.
From a cultural viewpoint, cars are considered both as a form of transportation and transformation. Unless forced, convincing people to relinquish their avenue of self-expression from using manually driven cars may prove highly impossible, even with the efficiency and safety of self-driving vehicles (Dorf).
The location also matters in the case of autonomous cars. On this note, a semi-rural or rural area might not look good with a fleet of self-driving cars on sight. It becomes impractical to ban manually-driven cars in particular places due to sparse populations. Moreover, no one wants to give up ownership of a car they own (Dorf). Big cities and towns may reap the advantages of driverless vehicles, which may be less useful in other parts.
The technology behind driverless cars, attaches high prices for owning one. Thus, when introduced, the cars will be out of the price range of most ordinary individuals, with prices beyond $100,000 (Dor...