Torque Talk: The Human Element

The human element: the self-driving car is a concept that has fascinated the motoring world for generations. Metropol’s motoring writer Ben Selby shares his thoughts.

Back in the 1950s, the space race was heating up and the fascination with what could be one day possible led to the idea of a car which could drive itself. You even had futuristic road networks like something out of a Gerry Anderson TV show with cars looking like Thunderbird 3 ferrying their magazine-reading occupants to their destination in luxurious comfort.

Today, it is no longer science fiction, but science fact. Manufacturers have been offering cars with semi-autonomous drive functions for a number of years now, and now we have also mainstream cars with self-drive technology.

While this is mighty clever, I just don’t know how I feel about a tonne and a bit of metal and wires doing my driving for me. While you still have the ability to turn this function off, the day could come where driverless cars will become the norm and that is a tad worrying.

Now I am not suggesting there will exist a Skynet-style technological giant which will eventually become self-aware and our cars will turn on us, but as a keen driver, I would just feel far more comfortable being able to make those decision myself.