How safe is it to use self-driving cars?

There are people who are still hesitant about the idea of making use of a self-driving car to get to any destination. They fear that the lack of a human element could lead to accidents and computer malfunctions.

The truth is that this is not an unfounded fear given the fact that machines do not feel fear ad they do not have a natural instinct to avoid dangerous situations. With that said, machines have a much better chance of avoiding accidents when they are programmed to follow very specific rules.

Self-driving cars are very intricate and complex technological marvels in many ways. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, they are simply machines that are driven by a computer with a specific program. This program tells them how and when to move, stop, and how much they can accelerate in specific areas.

Computers are indeed likely to fail at some point, but the likelihood of this happening if maintenance is constant is quite low. Self-driving cars are available in many areas and they are given daily maintenance to ensure that they are safe to use.

It is important to note that studies have shown that 99% of autonomous self-driven vehicle accidents are caused by human error. This means that improper maintenance or assembly of a specific part of the vehicle has been to blame.

Tesla has reported only 11 accidents in the last four years and only one of those accidents had a fatal outcome. This is not a large number of incidents, but that could increase once more of these autonomous cars hit the streets worldwide.

Computers can definitely fail and this could easily cause an accident, but those are isolated cases that have been reported sporadically. The technology for these vehicles is still being tested and improved, so it will take a while for this to be a mainstream service.